Emptiness Within
by Star Dragon Fire
Summary: AU from Empty Places. What happens if after being kicked out of her house, Buffy disappears altogether only to reappear two years afterwards as the deadly demonic assassin, Glory? My first BTVS fic, so please RR!
1. Choices

This is my first BTVS fic, so be nice! Please review even if it is to criticise it but no flames! 

Disclaimer: What's Joss's is Joss's, what's mine is mine.

Emptiness Within 

**Chapter One: Choices**

 "Then you can't stay here," Dawn said softly looking at her sister calmly blinking to fight back tears.

Buffy stared at her in shock. Looking past her sister's shoulder and she looked wildly at her friends and the Potentials hoping to look for a friendly face. Someone who agreed with her plan.

There were none.

"If that's the way you want," Buffy said softly her voice forlorn and broken.

Slowly she turned around and walked out of the front door.

"B!" Faith ran after her as Buffy walked out of her own front door, "I didn't want it to be this way. I swear I didn't wan..."

Buffy stopped her grabbing her arm firmly

"Their lives are in your hands," she said softly, "Make sure they live."

With that Buffy walked away from her home and from all the friends she ever had.

~~~~~

She had lost track of time wandering aimlessly through the deserted streets of Sunnydale unaware of what was going on around her and not really caring at all. She was homeless, friendless and worse of all, helpless. She was just one girl facing the personification of evil. How can she win? 

Drowning in despair, Buffy wondered why she was still fighting the 'good' fight. She never should have been brought back to life that was what had started this whole mess. Lost in her own depressing thoughts Buffy wasn't aware of the presence behind her until it spoke up.

"Awwww... wandering out so late?" a familiar voice said from behind her a smirk evident in her voice, "Haven't you got a home to go to?"

Buffy whirled around and stared into a pair of familiar eyes. It was the same eyes that stared back at her every time she peered into a mirror, every time she looked into a puddle of water.

"Ain't life a bitch," the voice continued in an exasperated tone, "You fight with them. You save their lives time and time again and they turn on you."

Buffy resisted the urge to charge the voice knowing that she will pass straight through its incorporeal body.

"But you know what?" the First continued with a small smile dancing across its stolen face, "You don't need them."

"Is this the bit where you propose we become allies and I go all Darth Vader on my friends," Buffy snorted, "I'll pass."

"You know you were right," the First smirked at her ignoring her comment, "There is something in the orchard but what can you do about it? You're just one little girl."

With that the First let out a burst of malicious laughter before vanishing in a burst of bright light leaving behind a stunned Slayer. 

_~~~~~_

Caleb jumped as the First appeared before him. Instantly the demon's face changed from that of the Slayer's to the visage of one familiar to the inhabitants of Sunnydale particularly to the Slayer's undead lover. 

Wide insane brown eyes stared into Caleb's fanatical ones, a small gentle smile appearing on the girl's soft ruby lips.

"She's coming," the First murmured its voice soft and seductive, "The naughty dirty girl is coming drawn into our trap like a small fly to that of a spiders. The stars sing for her blood as her soul fights to escape her body. She's coming and you know what you must do my champion..."

Caleb spoke as his fists clenched at the thought of the blonde Slayer.

"Yes, I know what to do," he hissed his accent becoming more pronounced with each word.

The smile on Drusilla/the First's face became wider as it began moving its slim long fingers in front of its pale face in elaborate gestures weaving invisible pictures into the air.

 "Good, Death in all this black glory is close. It's scythe poised above the Slayer's neck. Naughty, dirty girl..." the First burst into peals of delighted laughter, "CHOP! Slayer gone!"

~~~~~

Buffy stood stunned even after the First had left her. She had been right! 

She. 

Had. 

Been. 

Right! The orchard... something was there... something... something that the First wanted to keep hidden maybe it was something that could help them defeat the incorporeal demon... all she need to do was to raid the orchard and... and... and...

Buffy stopped in mid thought.

How was she going to raid the orchard? She was just one girl albeit a super-powered one but what could she do against the all-powerful First and its army of Harbingers, Ubervamps and Caleb?

Taking a deep steadying breath, Buffy knew she had to try. She was the Slayer, the Chosen one. She had to do this.

She just had to.

~~~~~

"Knock! Knock!" Buffy said cheerfully as she crushed the Harbinger's skull against one of the hard columns.

Dropping the bloody corpse she spun kick another knife wielding Harbinger in the gut sending him flying backwards into a wall. Bouncing lightly on the balls of her hell, she sprung out of the way as another Harbinger charged at her slashing the air widely with its knife.

"How do you people see?" Buffy mused as she used the Harbinger's momentum against him kicking him in the leg as he shot past, "Do you people have like a third eye somewhere I'm not seeing?"

Kicking the knife out of one of the Harbinger's hands, she caught it deftly and plunged the deadly tip into its owner's gut. Yanking the knife out, she wrinkled her nose in distaste as black blood jetted out from the gaping wound.

"You know what? Making up snappy comebacks and quips just ain't fun when the enemy can't talk back," Buffy sighed before drop kicking another Harbinger.

"Ooo... naughty dirty girl..." a familiar voice drawled from the shadows, "The stars were right..."

"Let me guess," Buffy said with a sigh without turning around, "Drusilla?"

She turned around and stared at the insane vampire that stood in the shadows, her cunning eyes watching the Slayer's every move.

"Oooo... do I get a prize for being right?" Buffy said with false-cheerfulness.

Drusilla smiled at her.

"I'm not Drusilla," she said strongly.

"Right, that's because you're the First," Buffy drawled.

Drusilla smirked at her before transforming into its favourite shape: Buffy.

"Hello, me," the First sneered, "You know the whole Die Hard thing doesn't work in real life."

"As compared with the whole taking other people's form thing?" Buffy asked arching an eyebrow delicately, "Oh wait, you're incorporeal. Whoops, silly me."

The First glared at her.

"Take care of her," it muttered to someone behind Buffy.

The Slayer ducked hurriedly as a clenched fist whooshed past overhead narrowly missing Buffy's golden head. Whirling around, Buffy kicked Caleb's leg from under him and smiled in satisfaction as the insane priest was sent tumbling.

"You know what I realised?" Buffy asked as she sparred with Caleb.

"What?" both the First and Caleb snarled.

"I don't need my friends or my family. Every time some big bad comes along, it's always me that fights them in the end. No matter who it was: the Master, Angelus, the Mayor, Adam, Glory..." Buffy shrugged as she nimbly sidestepped Caleb's haymaker, "You get the point. And I've came to a conclusion: I don't need them, all along it's always been me against the worst of the worst and you two really aren't that scary. Kinda like a Sonny and Cher thing meet Adam's Family."

"What?!?" the First barked with Buffy's voice, "You bitch!"

Buffy threw a smirk her way as Caleb let out a bellow of rage and charged her.

"I'm _the _Slayer. The one and only. I've died twice and I'm still around. What makes you think you can beat me?" Buffy frog jumped over the charging priest and sent him tumbling into a pile of barrels with a well-placed kick on his rump.

"You stupid wench!" Caleb raged as he picked himself up off the ground.

Dusting himself off, he grabbed one of the few remaining intact barrels and hurled it at Buffy. 

"CRACK!"

The barrel exploded as it slammed into Buffy's chest sending the petite Slayer flying across the floor.

"Ow," the First observed as Buffy struggled to stand up again.

Caleb stalked towards the downed Slayer as Buffy blinked furiously trying to clear her vision.

"Dirty, dirty bitch," Caleb snarled, "Let my purification heal you!"

With that he unceremoniously grabbed a handful of Buffy's long hair and yanked viciously as a small gasp of pain escaped from the Slayer's lips.

"Fly like the witch you are!" Caleb ranted as he threw Buffy across the room.

Slamming into the wall with considerable force, Buffy felt the air shoot out of her battered lungs as she struggled to remain conscious.

"Let the purification be at hand," Caleb snarled, "And let the bitch see the full glory of the Lord in all his might!"

With two long strides, he bounded across the room. Grabbing Buffy around the throat, he lifted her off the ground pinning her against the wall all the while tightening his iron grip around her throat.

"Perhaps a crucifixion is needed to bleed all your impurities out of you. Or a burning," Caleb hissed in her face, his eyes lit up with a demonic light, "Burn you like the witch you are."

Buffy struggled to breath as Caleb increased the pressure. Struggling in the folds of her jacket, Buffy withdrew something long and sharp and in a blinding move too fast to see she buried the dagger straight into Caleb's chest.

Caleb staggered backwards as blood oozed from around the dagger buried into his chest. He stared at the blade in horror as he left go of Buffy. Hitting the ground lightly, Buffy sucked in a few grateful breaths as she slowly got to her feet.

Caleb stared up at the Slayer in shock as Buffy smiled back at him.

"I maybe blonde but I'm not stupid..." she began.

The priest smirked at her and slowly drew the dagger out of his chest. A sadistic smile appeared across his thin lips as he looked up expecting the Slayer to look at him in horror instead he was surprised to see the Slayer smiling at him.

"See I'm not stupid," Buffy smirked, "You maybe super-strong like Glory but you don't have her invulnerability to weapons."

Before Caleb or the First could react, Buffy shot across the short distance between them and sank her fingers into his gaping wound. Caleb let out a howl of pain as Buffy squeezed the bloody muscles between her fingers.

"And you don't have super-healing either," Buffy noted as she socked him in the stomach before darting out of the way.

Caleb roared after her as Buffy glanced around for an escape seeing an open trapdoor partially hidden by a row of barrels, Buffy grinned. Her smile soon fell when she realised Caleb was cutting her off from the trapdoor.

"Tag," Buffy darted forwards and smacked Caleb in his wound again eliciting another furious scream of pain from the priest.

Ducking beneath his wild swipes, she dashed towards the trapdoor.

"Go after her!" the First yelled pointing at the fleeing Slayer, "Go! Go!"

"Shut up you bitch!" Caleb screamed.

The First sniffed disdainfully.

"Fine!" it barked before disappearing in a bright flash of light.

Caleb charged after Buffy but the Slayer put on an extra spurt of speed before taking off in a flying leap.

"Down the rabbit hole," Buffy threw over her shoulders before sailing down the open trapdoor.

Landing nimbly onto the hard-packed earthen ground, Buffy looked around quickly and saw she was in an underground tunnel of some sort seeing a small opening in the rocky wall across from her, she dashed through it as Caleb landed like a stone behind her. 

"Come here, you bitch!" he snarled as Buffy slipped through the tiny opening.

Throwing a fearful look behind her, Buffy whirled around to see where she was and stopped as she saw what was in the tiny rocky chamber.

A silver and crimson scythe glowing with internal light stood in the centre of the room, the play of light across the razor sharp mesmerised the Slayer as Buffy stared at the weapon in awe. Much of its blade were embedded into a massive boulder sticking out from the ground and judging by the many sledgehammers, blowtorches and even a jackhammer lying around, the First had been trying to break it out.

"Tsk, tsk," Buffy tutted, "Haven't you heard of Arthur? Only the rightful person can pull the sword from the stone."

Buffy could hear Caleb stumbling through the open behind her and making a quick decision she dashed across the small chamber to the scythe. Spreading her legs apart, she gripped the scythe's handle tightly and wrenched it with all her might. To her surprise, the scythe came loose with miraculous ease as though it wasn't stuck in the rock at all.

"Hmm... guess I'm going to be king of Camelot," Buffy mused as she stared the play of light across the blade's surface.

"Where are you?" Caleb snarled through the opening as Buffy wrenched her eyes away from the scythe.

Smiling wickedly, Buffy jumped nimbly off the boulder and waited as she twirled the scythe expertly in her hand. Some kind of mystical energy seemed to radiate from the weapon filling Buffy's body with an incredible strength she had never felt before.

"Damn, this feels good," Buffy muttered.

"Prepare for the god's wrath!" Caleb yelled before exploding out from the opening.

Buffy hefted the scythe and whipped the blade around a neck height as Caleb stared at her in shock. The look remained on his face as his head fell off his neck and bounced gently as it hit the ground. Caleb's body crumpled to the ground as Buffy grimaced at the amazing amount of the blood that spurted from his severed neck.

"It's never good to lose your head in a battle," Buffy remarked as she stared at the scythe in her hands, "Hmm... slices and dices. How handy."

Taking a deep shuddering breath to calm the adrenaline pounding through her veins, Buffy continued to stare at the scythe. 

Caleb was dead.

The First had lost something it wanted...

She should give this to Faith and the others... but...

She couldn't. She couldn't face them again knowing that they had thrown her out like trash they didn't wanted. Those she had called her friends and family threw her out like she was nothing.

Staring at her reflection in the shiny surface of the blood, Buffy saw in a sudden moment of clarity what she must do.

Hefting the scythe up, she left the chamber and left never to come back.

~~~~~~

Next morning, the residents of the Summers' house were surprised to find a crimson and silver scythe lying on the steps of their doorway. A simple note was found under the weapon.

_'Caleb is dead.'_

Faith frowned in confusion as she stared at the scythe as Willow walked up behind her.

"Buffy," the red-haired witch murmured, "Buffy did this."

Faith looked around at the brightly lit street outside.

"But where is she?" the rogue Slayer wondered as she frowned worriedly.

Willow sighed.

"Somehow I think she doesn't want us to know."

~~~~~~

Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, turned around and stared at the town she had come to call home. How ironic. The Slayer, the young teenaged girl who had been reluctant to move away L.A. to move away from the city she had lived for all her life, calling the Hellmouth home. Her most triumphant moments and her most depressing moments had been here. Fighting the good fight, winning and losing. It had been all here but last night... being thrown out just like that... that she couldn't forgive or forget. 

Suppressing the sadness inside, Buffy Summers checked she had a stake tucked in her jacket pocket before turning around and walking away from Sunnydale, her home. A place where she was no longer needed or wanted. 

The Slayer walked away from her home and the world shook with her choice.

Like ripples in a pond, the consequences of her decision rippled out through time and space destroying possible futures and spawning new ones. The threads of destiny shifted and changed. The moving hands of fate crafted new passages with every step Buffy took. 

What world would Buffy create with her choice still remained a mystery. 

~~~~~

Spike screamed in pain as the amulet's power came crashing down onto him drawing the sunlight through his body and into the diamond of the amulet.

"Spike!" Faith cried staring at the vampire in shock.

The vampire's eyes widened in shock as he felt the mystical power of the amulet flood through his veins filling with strength he had never felt before. He felt his cold and silent heart beat as the power flowed through the organ. Invisible flames danced across his skin as the sunlight scorched him but the power of the amulet turned it back as Spike gasped for breath.

He watched as an Ubervamp try to sneak up behind Faith but the dark Slayer reacted instantly whipping the scythe around decapitating the vampire in one swift movement. All around them the newly born-Slayers fought for their lives. Not of all them had made it. Spike's eyes fell sorrowfully on the prone figure of Amanda lying on the ground, he had always like the lass but now she was gone.

Like Tara.

Like Eve.

Like Molly.

Like Chloe.

Like Buffy...

No, Buffy wasn't dead. She was just gone, ran away after being chucked out by her friends and family. When Spike had returned from his trip with Andrew, he had chewed out each and every single one of them as he unleashed his fury over what they had done to the blonde Slayer. Didn't they know what anguish she had gone through when she came back from the dead? And a few short months later, they chuck her out?

Bloody wankers.

Spike bit down on his anger as the power of the amulet filled his body again giving his skin a beautiful azure glow.

Vi kicked an Ubervamp away before slicing its gut open with the tiny dagger she held in her carefully manicured hands as Rona whacked another vamp silly with her arm, which was still in a cast.

Kennedy introduced another Ubervamp to the sharp edge of its own side as she pushed it back down to the ravine below where more Ubervamps tried to pour onto the small ledge they were fighting on.

"No," Spike whispered, "This ends now."

Suddenly he felt a presence to his right, Spike slowly turned his head and stared at the figure that stood before him.

"Spike," Buffy whispered, her voice soft and tender, "Please, don't do this. Don't unleash the power. It'll kill us now."

For a few brief seconds, Spike wavered.

"Spike, please," Buffy murmured again.

"You're not her," Spike growled as Buffy smiled nervously at him.

"Spike, it's me. Buffy. The girl you love?"

Spike narrowed his eyes at the First.

"No, Buffy never loved me," he said roughly, "Her heart never truly belonged to me. It belongs to another."

Buffy glared at him and dropped the act.

"That's right, you wanker," the First snarled taking some of Spike's phrases, "She never loved you cause if she did she would've stayed around for you to come back. But guess what? She's never coming back. Ever."

Spike glared at the First.

"Think your bloody mind games work on me?" he snarled, "I was your pawn once but not again. This ends now."

With that Spike unleashed the power of the amulet.

The First screamed in pain as a beam of energy laced sunlight struck its incorporeal body. Its body burned with pain as it screamed and screamed and screamed. With one high-pitched shriek, its essence exploded scattering through the different dimension, through space and time. 

The First was gone.

Just like that.

Poof.

Kinda anticlimactic if you think about it.

Spike ignored his victory and concentrated on the army of vampires. Beams of sunlight raked through the ranks of the Ubervamps vaporising the vamps as the sunlight boiled away at their skin and muscles reducing them to charred skeletons that exploded into dust. 

All around him Slayers backed away in confusion as their enemies they were fighting exploded into piles of dust. Faith's eyes were immediately drawn to Spike as she gasped in shock.

Before she could speak, the whole cavern rumbled and shook as some of the stalagmites and stalactites poling out of the rocky walls like jagged fangs shattered falling to the ground.

"Faith?" Spike yelled, "Get them out of here!"

Faith blinked in confusion but quickly recovered barking out commands to the other confused Slayers.

"Girls! Get out of here! Now!" she roared.

Spike watched in satisfaction as Chao-Ahn, Vi and Rona immediately sprang into action helping Faith direct the Slayers out of the rumbling Hellmouth. The walls of the chamber continued to deteriorate as Spike felt the energy of the amulet well up in him again ready to unleash another tsunami-proportion wave of energy onto the Hellmouth.

"Spike!" Faith was beside him in seconds, "You have to get out of here! There's still time!"

"Faith!" Kennedy yelled from the staircase leading up to the school, "Come on! We've got to go!"

Faith remained silent as Kennedy shot one last cautious look at the rumbling Hellmouth before sprinting up the stairs.

"Spike..." Faith began.

"No!" Spike growled at her, "You did the fighting and it's time for me to do the cleaning up. Leave or else you'll be destroyed too."

Faith was silent as she realised she was helpless in the face of the vampire's determination to finish off this job once and for all.

"She loved you, you know," the dark Slayer said quietly, "She really did."

Spike looked at her, tears running down the side of his face. Bathed in the golden light of the sun and with the glittering diamond changing from his neck, Spike looked like some kind of angelic figure straight out of a legend. He looked like a hero.

"No, she didn't," Spike said quietly, "She never did but thanks for saying it."

Before Faith could reply, she was almost knocked off her feet as the whole Hellmouth shook with the force of the amulets attack on it.

"I guess it's fair to say school's out for bloody summer," Spike quipped with a small smirk on his face as he turned away from Faith and looked upon the dust-strewn ground of the Hellmouth.

Shooting the vampire on last helpless look, Faith ran to the staircase and disappeared to the world above as Spike felt the amulet gather its strength one last time.    

"I want to see how this ends," he sniggered as the sunlight began to eat away at his pale skin.

White skin turned to black ash as muscles fried under the force of the sunlight. Spike's laughter was cut off as his throat disintegrated. With one last blast of azure energy from the amulet, he crumbled to dust. All around him the cavern crumbled and the walls collapsed as the Hellmouth phased in and out of this dimension.

With one last ominous rumble, the cave completely collapsed as the town above slid into the gaping crater. As the city around it fell, a single yellow school bus shot out from the wreckage and onto a narrow stretch of road just outside town.

They were safe.

And so it ended.

~~~~~~

"Yeah," Dawn agreed, "What do we do now?"

Faith faced the hulking crater that was all that was left of the Hellmouth and Sunnydale and sighed.

"And now we celebrate," she said quietly, "And mourn."

Do you hate it? Like it? Please review!


	2. The new me

Sorry about the massive delay but I had a hideous case of writer's block (really, really bad), I rewrote this chapter about a dozen times and this is the final product, hopefully it's good enough for you to be interested in the story. And as always please review!

Disclaimer: What's mine is mine, the rest of Joss's (unfortunately)

**Emptiness Within**

**Chapter 2: The new me**

_Los Angeles _

_May 6, 2005 _

_9:06 P.M._

"I still don't see why I have to be here," a high-pitched whiney voice shattered the silence, "I mean I'm pretty sure when I took this job, body-guarding was so not on the job description."

"If you do not cease, I will tear your head off," another voice spoke, this one filled with raw fury and a coldness that made a blizzard like warm and inviting.

"I still don't see why we have to protect _him_."

Harmony wrinkled her nose and shot the hapless demon they were dragging in between them a disgusted look.

"I mean honestly, those clothes… ewww… can you say Payless?" Harmony continued chattering away ignoring the silence waves of fury that rolled off her companion, "And the stench? Obsession for Road Kill not a good scent."

The demon snarled at her as Harmony's companion gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to punch her fist through both their heads.

"The only reason you are still alive, _half-breed_," Illyria spat out the word like it was something filthy, "Is because you know the location of this… 'safehouse' and if you want to keep your pathetic life you will be silent or I will rip out your spine and make it my trophy."

Harmony saw the cold fury in Illyria's eyes and immediately closed her mouth not wanting to incur the demonic warrior's wrath. The demon they were dragging struggled wildly cursing at them in his own bizarre language.

"What is it saying?" Harmony asked promptly forgetting Illyria's threat, "Cos god, it's more confusing than French."

Illyria glared at Harmony but manage to beat down the urge to kill the disgusting half-breed. Instead she diverted her fury onto the demon she was clutching.

"Silence!" Illyria snarled.

To demonstrate her displeasure, she gripped the creature's arm tightly exerting her strength into her already iron-hard grip. The demon whimpered as something in its arms broke.

"What does Angel want with him anyway?" Harmony complained, "And why couldn't we go into the limo? My new dress, which by the way cost me a grand and looks so cute on me, is going to get dirty in this filthy alleyway!"

Illyria's grip tightened on the demon's already broken arm as it whimpered loudly.

"The vampire wants this demon for questioning," Illyria muttered coldly, "It's a secret, you pathetic creature. That's why we must be swift and silent."

"Oooo…" Harmony perked up, "This is a secret mission! This is so cool! It's like James Bond or something except we both chicks! I love James Bond, he's just so dreamy…"

Illyria was slightly confused by who this 'James Bond' was but her quickly thinning patience for the frivolous half-breed she was forced to work was easily overpowering that feeling. Perhaps for the billionth them since she was reborn in this pitiful shell, Illyria wished for her powers back. Oh, if she had them the sky themselves would tremble, she would rule over the world like the queen she was, she would wreak vengeance on everyone that dared to evoke her wrat…

"Hey! Smurf-girl!"

Once again Harmony's screeching voice tore into her ears like a thousand knives.

"Do you want to move a little bit faster?" Harmony demanded, "Sunrise is in half an hour and I so don't want to go up in flames."

"And that's supposed to concern me, how?" Illyria muttered dryly.

She froze, those words, this behaviour… it wasn't her. It was so frustrating! It felt like there was another person inside her head making her act differently. It just slipped in and for a few moments Illyria would find herself acting like one of those… _humans _she had to associate with. It was disgusting! It was below her! These emotions… these words… they were… mortal.

Illyria shuddered at the thought but quickened her stop if only to get rid of Harmony as soon as possible.

"Phwip!"

Illyria whirled around in blur of movement and caught the crossbow bolt flying straight at her. Snatching the arrow from midair, she snapped it with a flex of her finger and threw the now useless pieces of splinter onto the filthy alley ground.

"Who dares?" Illyria roared, "Who dares attack? Show yourself!"

A slight movement in the shadows overhead made Illyria and Harmony looked up, wreathed by the light of a nearby streetlamp a blonde-haired figure clutching a crossbow stood one of the nearby roofs.

"You're quick," the woman stated.

"Oh, you so don't want to mess with us," Harmony smirked, "I'm Harmony, you've probably heard of me… I'm like this super villain vampire with her own minions and Illyria here? She can crush you like a bug. If you take us on, you are so going to be dead."

"Harmony, shut up," the figure on the rooftop snapped, "You were annoying in Sunnydale and you are still annoying me here."

The woman threw the crossbow down onto the alley below before performing a nimble back flip sailing off the edge of the roof and landing nimbly in the alleyway, several metres in front of them.

"Oh my god!" Harmony shrieked, "Buffy?!? I heard you we…"

Before Harmony could finish her sentence, Buffy leapt into a flying kick that threw the vampire backwards and into a stack of crates. She landed amidst a shower of broken wood and remained there, out cold.

"Slayer," Illyria hissed coldly pushing the demon she held behind her.

"Demon," Buffy said just as coldly.

Slayer and demon circled each other, eyeing each other warily preparing themselves for the fight to come.

"Are we going to do this?" Buffy asked suddenly smirking at Illyria.

"Lets."

Illyria threw the first punch.

* * *

_Location Unknown_

_24 hours before_

_May 5, 2005_

_9:06 P.M._

"DUCK!"

Buffy threw herself onto the ground and prayed for the best as a flash of heat and light roared through the air. She grimaced as she felt hot chunks of debris and no doubt demon flesh fell onto her back.

"You better have not ruined this!" Buffy yelled as she jumped up, "I just got this yesterday!"

"Oh please," an Asian girl snapped back at her as she dodged a demon swipe but grimaced as it knocked her sawed off shotgun out of her hand, "Like you can't afford to buy the factory that made that."

The girl leapt backwards as the roaring blue-scaled and green-horned demon, dressed bizarrely enough in a stylish classic tuxedo, threw a wild punch at her. She landed nimbly on her feet and with a simple flick of her wrist magically called the gun back into her hand. She clubbed the demon in the face with the butt of the gun before expertly spinning it around in her hand and firing.

Fleshy chunks sprayed through the air as the now headless demon collapsed. Buffy grimaced feeling blood splatter her oh-so-ruined coat.

"Damn!" she hissed as she kicked a demon away.

It tried to punch her but Buffy grabbed its fist and calmly broke its arm with a violent twist. She kicked the demon away before spinning around just in time to cleave another demon in half with the katana sword she held in her hands.

"How are we doing on time?" the Asian girl yelled out the scream of pains and furious bellows.

Buffy risked a glance at her watch parrying a demon's clawed swipe with her sword as the Asian girl was thrown violently against a wall.

"Ten minutes!" Buffy yelled, "Ying, stop being polite and just blast these damn things!"

"But that's no fun," Ying-fa complained with a mock sigh, "There's no artistic value in that…"

With a wild smirk, Ying-fa gestured at the demons barking a single word in a strange guttural voice that tore through the air like a devilish knife. Flickers of blue flames exploded everywhere consuming the few remaining demons who had no time to react before they were reducing to glowing embers.

"But then again," Ying-fa smirked observing the damage she had done, "Incinerations leave the prettiest patterns."

"You've got a problem," Buffy muttered shaking her head before running across the room towards a pair of large wooden doors as Ying-fa followed closely behind her but before they could reach there, the doors flung open.

"Who dares?" a piercing feminine voice shrieked.

"That's her?" Ying-fa muttered completely ignoring the woman standing in the doorway.

The bright light streaming in through the doorway, framed the woman in brightness causing her to be little more than a silhouette, a shadow in the light.

"That's her," Buffy replied softly.

Ying-fa snorted.

"That's it?" she muttered.

The woman strolled towards them, her movements liquid and predatory. Her face was completely white, her lips a dark blood red. Vicious green eyes eyed them warily as her clawed white hands smoothed the dark velvet of her form-fitting dress.

"Who dares attack Zakura?" the woman hissed, a forked tongue poking out from her rows of razor sharp teeth, "Who dares defile my domain?"

"Jeez, egoistic much?" Buffy muttered.

"Is she powerful? Cause circus freaks usually aren't," Ying-fa murmured in a stage whisper allowing Zakura to hear her quite clearly.

"Apparently," Buffy shrugged, "But source was kinda vague."

Ying-fa eyed Zakura.

"Okay, Queen of the Damned," she sighed, "Hit us."

Zakura snarled at her and threw her clawed hands outwards. Twin streams of shimmering air flew at the two women but both of them held their ground looking at the incoming magical attack unworriedly.

"Oh, please? You think you can beat us with those?!?" Ying-fa sighed and gave a casual wave of her hand.

The shimmering air faded, Zakura's shocked face now staring at them through undistorted air, the demonic woman slowly backing away.

"Oh, come on," Ying-fa muttered, "I was so psyched about this hit. I thought we were up against some kind of major mojo mystic mama but instead we get some loser Charmed-villain reject."

"Just kill her already," Buffy muttered, "I want to go home and wash this new demon hair rinse off."

Ying-fa threw a last smirk at the still stunned Zakura before making a wild gesture with her hand. Buffy got a vivid flash of Willow flaying Warren alive as Zakura's clothes and skin were magically ripped off her flesh. The bloody skinless body flopped onto the ground with a wet squelch.

"Are we good or what?" Ying-fa threw her friend a wicked grin, her eyes glancing around at the mayhem they had caused, "What's this? The third hit this week?"

"We're good," Buffy confirmed replying with a smirk of her own, "And with that demon Godfather-esque thing going down in Boston…"

"Please, if all of them were as pathetic as skinless wonder here," Ying-fa rolled her eyes, "We'll be cleaning them up in no time."

Buffy glanced at her watch.

"It's late, I'm tired and oooo… Stargate is on," Buffy sheathed her katana sword in the scabbard strapped across her back, "I hope Tori's taped it."

"You mean if she's not too busy having her freaky hormone-induced mood swings," Ying-fa muttered before whispering a few quiet words under her breath.

Her shotgun instantly disappeared with a flash of bright light allowing Ying-fa to dust her hands on her jeans before glancing around them again.

"Leave a message?" she asked.

"Hallmark it," Buffy nodded.

Ying-fa flicked her hand towards Zakura's flayed body before pointing at one of the slightly less singed walls. Red blood hit the pale concrete and began shifting, forming words.

"Ring was here," Buffy read and rolled her eyes, "Jeez, originality much?"

Ying-fa glared at her before flicking her fingers at it again.

"From Ring, with love," Buffy stared at Ying-fa incredulously, "You've actually seen a James Bond movie?"

"Who hasn't?" Ying-fa shot back.

"But you never watch action movies, you bitch about every single little detail they get wrong! Wrong guns to use, wrong fight moves…"

"Yeah, and you keep silent during kung-fu movies," Ying-fa muttered sarcastically.

"That's different."

"Sure."

Ying-fa threw Buffy a final smirk before strolling out of the building, the blonde Slayer sighing in frustration and running after her friend. As she reached Ying-fa, Buffy couldn't help but remember Zakura's face before Ying-fa had magically flayed her. It reminded her so much of Warren and… Willow…

"Where are you?" she whispered softly catching up with Ying-fa.

"What?"

"Nothing."

* * *

Buffy glanced up at the immense brick wall that stood in front of them. 

"Home sweet home," she murmured.

"Traka," Ying-fa whispered waving her hand.

The wall rippled as though the bricks themselves had become a thick liquid. It continued to wobble, red bricks away and revealing a completely new façade. Buffy reached forwards and opened the door that had just formed in the wall. She jumped as the door swung opened, streams of bright light and loud music flooding out into the cold night air.

"Looks like a party," Ying-fa noted wincing at the loud sound.

"And I'm wondering why Tori hasn't ripped their heads off."

"They drugged her?"

Buffy rolled her eyes and stepped into the furnished warehouse she now called home. Ying-fa followed but stopped at the threshold and turned around.

"Akart," she murmured closing the door.

The front of the warehouse faded, blue energy rippling over the building as the illusion of red bricks appeared again hiding the building from view. Inside, by stark contrast to the darkness outside it was bright, warm and comforting. To both Buffy and Ying-fa's surprise, nobody was around even though the stereo system in what was roughly their living room was on blaring out music at top volume.

"Hello?" Ying-fa called, "Where the hell are you guys?"

One of the doors on the second level of the warehouse, now their temporary home and base of operations, swung open. A blonde-haired man with vivid blue eyes stuck his head out and beamed when he saw the two girls.

"Hey, it's my favourite sex kittens!" he cheered as he walked down the stairs towards them.

"Ryan," Buffy retorted, "Get laid and get over it."

"Oooo… kitty likes to scratch."

"Kitty likes to kill pathetic man with her bare hands."

"Come on girls, let's not get into a hissy fight," Ying-fa sighed, "Because Buffy would win hands down."

"Armed or unarmed?" Ryan challenged, his blue eyes flashing.

"Awww… manly Ryan's ego is all bruised," Ying-fa taunted in a sickly sweet voice, "How cute… and pathetic."

"What's with the music?" Buffy asked, her eyes flicking over to the stereo.

"The two little honey bunnies are going at it again like…" Ryan blinked, "Bunnies. Ying, can't you do a silencing spell? These walls are awfully thin."

"You don't mean?" Buffy turned green.

Ryan nodded, a wicked smile on his face.

"Yeah."

"Ew…" Ying-fa wrinkled her nose, "How? Tori's Goodyear blimp impersonation is a bit off-putting to me and I'm not the one who's doing it."

"It's called true love," Ryan teased, "Something your black, cold witch's heart cannot understand."

"Bite me," Ying-fa snapped.

"So you want to hear about it?" Buffy asked breaking in before Ryan and Ying-fa got stuck into each other again.

"How did it go?" Ryan asked leading them towards the kitchen.

"Push-over," Ying-fa snorted, "Big time."

Ryan glanced at Buffy.

"We came, we saw, I slayed, she flayed. Hence we conquered," Buffy quipped.

"Flayed?" Ryan frowned in confusion staring at Buffy, the Slayer jerked her head towards Ying-fa as she stepped around him.

"Yep, Zakura pelt coats for sale," Ying-fa winced as she glanced down at her clothes, "But the blood kinda went everywhere."

Buffy walked over to their fridge and yanked it open grimacing at the state it was in, gingerly pulling out a can of beer from amongst the half-decaying food inside she threw it at Ryan who deftly caught the can even though his back was to her. She made to throw another one at Ying-fa but the witch shook her head. Shrugging, Buffy pulled out a Coke and walked back towards the counter where her friends were sitting discussing their latest hit.

"Coke? My god, don't you ever drink?" Ryan smirked, teasing her about this for perhaps the millionth time.

"See?" Buffy opened the can of coke and tipped it towards her lips, "Drinking. See Buffy drink."

"That's not drinking," Ryan argued.

Ying-fa snorted.

"Oxford dictionary just rang, that is drinking," she muttered.

Ryan rolled her eyes.

"No, this is drinking," he informed them taking a swig from his can.

"No, that's boozing," Buffy shot back.

"Aww… no beer for Buffy?" Ryan threw her an easy smile, "Celibate and a non-drinker, if I didn't know you better I would've thought you were a priest."

Buffy froze for a few microseconds, her mind shooting back towards the night she had killed Caleb. The night she had been kicked out of her hou… Buffy shook her head dispersing the thought as she frowned at Ryan.

"You're just jealous because I refuse to sleep with you," Buffy muttered sipping her Coke.

"Ouch," Ying-fa observed.

Ryan opened his mouth to shoot back a retort but was abruptly stopped as the front door swung open again. A willowy young woman with light brown skin walked in, pulling her long brown hair out of a ponytail as she walked towards them.

"They still at it?" she asked arching an eyebrow.

Ryan nodded.

"Oh god," the girl whispered sitting down at a stool beside Ying-fa.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked frowning, "How long?"

"Just after you left."

Buffy did the match, she and Ying-fa had left about three hours ago so that meant…

"They're like Energiser bunnies," Ying-fa muttered wrinkling her nose.

"So how did it go?"

"Fine," Ying-fa scoffed, "Took us ten minutes to take them out."

Indy frowned.

"How come it took you so long then?" she asked confused.

"Took us a while to track her down," Buffy explained.

"Locating spell?" Indy enquired.

Ying-fa shook her head.

"Anti-locating spell spell. I had to use an anti-anti locating spell spell… spell" she paused, "If that makes sense at all."

"Like Buffy's necklace?" Indy frowned, "The anti-locating spell I mean."

Indy glanced at the sapphire necklace hanging around Buffy's neck. Buffy fidgeted nervously after her friends' gaze but shrugged lightly.

"Yeah," she replied slipping the gem under her shirt.

She had gotten the necklace around two weeks after she had left Sunnydale realising that Willow would probably try to locate her using a spell at some point. It had taken her a while to track down a witch powerful enough to create something like this but she had. As long as this gem was around her neck most locating spells of any variety would bounce off her making her non locate-y.

"Took me a while but I managed to dismantle the spells and track her," Ying-fa snorted breaking the awkward silence, "Then it kinda got anti-climatic from there."

Indy shot a look at Buffy.

"Why does everybody do that?" Ying-fa muttered.

"What?" Indy looked at the witch, a confused look on her face.

Ying-fa rolled her eyes.

"I tell the story and then you look to Buffy for confirmation."

"Ying," Indy sighed, "You have enough power in you to destroy ten blocks of buildings without breaking a sweat so anti-climatic for you is kinda underrated."

"God, I destroy ten blocks once and everybody thinks I'm some power-crazy over-kill trigger-happy freak," Ying-fa muttered disgusted.

"As opposed to a psychotic trigger-happy freak?" Ryan asked mockingly.

"As opposed to a pathetic quivering cowar…"

The rest of Ying-fa's sentence was cut off as one of the doors up on the second storey of the warehouse swung open.

"You're back," Tori smiled down at them gently as she smoothed her shirt over her obviously pregnant stomach.

A tall lanky man with dull auburn haired appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her stomach as he smiled over her shoulder at them.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"Took you guys long enough," Buffy teased with a gentle smile.

Tori had the grace to blush but her boyfriend just grinned wickedly at them.

"Making too much noise, hey?"

"Not something to be proud off," Indy called up to them, "In fact horrifically wrong."

"Amy Yipp and Casey Donovan finally comes up for air," Ryan noted, "The video must be finished."

"She's not Asian and I'm not gay," Horace pointed out, "And Ryan, you're a pig."

"You sound like a girl," Ryan taunted.

"Stop it," Buffy smacked Ryan gently across the head as Indy and Ying-fa sniggered, "It's romantic."

"Gag me," Ryan made loud choking noises as Buffy glared at him.

"Gladly," Ying-fa waved her hands at him and a band of bright green light wrapped itself around his mouth effectively silencing him.

Everyone laughed wildly watching Ryan as he clawed at the magical bond around his mouth.

"Ahhh… so much better," Ying-fa glanced up at Tori and Horace, "You want to hear all the juicy parts?"

"Love to," Horace gently led his pregnant girlfriend down the stairs as Ying-fa continued talking.

"But if you do the confirming thing, I'll have to flay you," Ying-fa warned.

Tori and Horace frowned in confusion.

"Forget it," Indy advised.

Tori sat down at a stool beside the still struggling Ryan, Horace standing protectively behind her.

"So, there was this anti-locating spell thing…" Ying-fa began.

Before she could continue, a splitting tune filled the air even overpowering the loud music pumping out from the stereo. Everybody's hands instantly flew to their mobile phones checking if it was theirs.

"Not mine," Buffy announced holding up her silent phone.

Ying-fa and Indy shook their heads, Ryan mumbling something through his magical bonds. Ying-fa snorted but cancelled the spell drawing another round of laughter from the gang.

"Mine," Horace announced.

He put the phone to his ear but winced.

"Wait," Horace pulled the phone away from his ear, "Ying?"

Ying-fa flicked her fingers at the playing stereo and it instantly turned off.

"Thanks," Horace put the phone near his ear again, "What? Now? Uh huh… oh, I see. Yep, right. Okay."

He sighed and disconnected the call.

"I have to go," he said smiling apologetically at Tori, "Sorry."

"Who was it?" Indy asked.

"Some contacts," Horace replied distractedly, "I've been looking for someone lately and my contacts came up with something. I've got to go and check. I'll be back as soon as I can, promise?"

"Just don't do this when your baby decides to pop out," Tori warned him, a small smile on her lips.

"My baby?" Horace arched an eyebrow, "So, it's my baby now? Cause I think you have 50 to do with it as well."

"TMI," Indy muttered, "TMI."

Horace kissed Tori gently and left as Buffy smiled, musingly. They seemed so normal, just like a bunch of friends living together. Looking at the pregnant Tori now, it was hard to see this seemingly gentle woman as a hired killer but she was. It had only been three months before, Tori was out with the rest of them killing whoever they were hired to kill. Ying-fa, Indy, Ryan, Tori, Horace, Gil and her; they made up the infamous Ring, a group of highly skilled and efficiently ruthless assassins. Buffy was basically doing the same as she had before, killing demons, but this time for money… and working for other demons.

But she ended up killing her former bosses anyway, so it kinda made sense… in a very twisted way.

It had been kind of a shock to her leaving Sunnydale and entering a completely new world: not all demons were medieval, let's-destroy-the-world mindless morons. The Master, the Vahrall demons, Sisterhood of the Jhe… all those demons were small fries in the wider community. Under the very noses of humans, many major cities were underground demon war zones and not in a Saving-Private-Ryan kinda way more of a Soprano theme working. In a city the size of Chicago alone, there maybe up to a dozen powerful demon crime syndicates battling each other for city supremacy. These fights were vicious and since secrecy was a prime issue, demon assassins were often called and that's when groups like Ring came in. It had taken Buffy a while to realise that perhaps although Sunnydale was the Hellmouth, many cities were even worse. She had killed some pretty ruthless demons since leaving good ol' Sunnyhell and it gave her the wiggings sometimes to realise that there were many others like or even worse then them.

It had been through chance she had met with the other members of Ring, the people shehad quickly come to call her friends and even her family at times. Combining their unique skills they had quickly shot up in the assassin world making a name for themselves. She had even taken on the codename of Glory, simply because the psycho goddess had been cold-blooded, ruthless, powerful killer.

Exactly what she was right now.

Buffy was jolted out of her musing as another door up on the second storey opened, the last member of their group walked down the stairs and joined them, an excited look on his violet-scaled face.

"Hey, Gil. What's up?" Ying-fa asked easily.

"New job," Gil informed them.

"Already?" Indy raised an eyebrow, "Wow, we're getting popular."

"Oh come on, our 100 kill ratio must be doing wonders to our reputations," Ryan smirked.

"Who? Where? When?" Buffy asked getting straight to business.

"Olario," Gil threw a blurry black-and-white faxed photo onto the counter, everyone leaning in to have a looking, Tori having more difficulty than the others, "Nothing special. Your run-of-the-mill lackey demon. Los Angeles, as soon as possible preferably now."

"What's so special about him?" Indy asked.

"You know the Frashar gang in L.A.?" Gil asked.

Buffy had fallen silent at the mention of L.A…. Angel's home ground. She felt saddened remembering the rumours she had heard of how Angel (the souled traitor, the demons had called him) had supplied the Scooby Gang with an amulet to help wipe out the First and how it had ended up killing Spike (the chipped traitor) in the process… Buffy's throat momentarily tightened at the thought of that but quickly composed herself reminding herself she had a task at hand.

"The group that was harvesting those Fyral demons?" Tori asked with a small frown.

"The time Ying-fa blew up ten blocks of buildings," Gil reminded them.

"Hey!" Ying-fa exclaimed as everybody snorted, "If I didn't do that you guys would've been mucus-ed!"

"Power-crazy," Ryan muttered.  
"Over-kill," Buffy joined in.

"Trigger-happy freak," Indy reminded her.

Ying-fa narrowed her eyes at them.

"Continue," she nodded at Gil.

"Olario was selling secrets from the Frashar gang to that gang of vampire mobsters in downtown L.A.," Gil trailed off.

"And the Frashar boys hired us to Olario," Buffy finished off.

"It's not that easy," Gil warned them, "Wolfram and Hart…"

"The only law company in the world that's not evil?" Ying-fa rolled her eyes, "What are they up to."

"They've got Olario and are promising to protect him from the Frashar gang if he tells them everything he knows about both groups," Gil winced, "Now there's two bounty on his head."

"We kill him, we'll get the double the pay check," Ying-fa grinned, "Nice."

"They're going to move him to a safehouse tomorrow night," Gil told them reading from a sheet of paper he held in his clawed hands, "That's probably the only time he's going to be vulnerable. We need to figure out how they're taking him there and who's protecting him."

"Okay," Ying-fa grinned at them, "We've got a road trip to L.A."

* * *

_Los Angeles_

_18 hours before_

_May 6, 2005_

_3:06 A.M._

"So what's the plan again?" Buffy demanded looking down at her skimpy leather costume she was wearing.

"You and Ying-fa make contact with the owner of this club, who happens to be a high placed employee of Wolfram and Hart and Ying-fa hits him with the whammy that makes him talk," Indy summed up for them again, "You get info, we go on our merry way, kill the idiot and collect the money. Got it?"

"Why do I have to wear this?" Ying-fa demanded glaring at her own equally skanky disguise.

"Because you let Ryan pick out your outfits," Indy told them, "Which by the way, here's a swelling chord from the I-told-you-so symphony. Now go, we need info fast!"

Buffy and Ying-fa glanced at each other and sighed.

"Into the belly of the beast we go," Ying-fa whispered in a singsong voice.

"With almost nothing on," Buffy added.

Both of their appearances had been magically altered, Buffy was now a tall brunette with sultry amber eyes whilst Ying-fa had changed her eyes to a sapphire blue and her hair was now slightly shorter. Tugging uncomfortably at her tight-fitting leather clothing (she was going to skin Ryan), Buffy stepped through the doorway of the Caritas club and was instantly immersed in its boisterous surroundings. Outwards, she seemed calm and composed and inside she was almost overwhelmed with panic. With Wolfram and Hart involved, it was extremely likely she was run into Angel and that for her was a world of pain and anguish she was not willing to go into. With a deep calming sigh, her eyes scanned the crowded club searching for their target.

"There," Ying-fa whispered spotting the red-horned, green skinned demon standing near the bar.

Buffy followed her friend's gaze and spotted the demon who was leaning relaxedly against the bar chatting idly with the bartender whilst at the same time listening carefully to the immense she-demon crooning out a Celine Dion ballad on stage. Buffy idly wondered how on earth Lorne, as the demon was commonly known as, could wear a bright orange suit with sapphire blue silk shirt without it clashing horribly with his green complexion. Pushing that erratic thought out of her mind, Ying-fa and her pushed their way through the bustling club towards the demon.

"Hey, ladies," Lorne tossed them an easy smiled as they made it towards the bar, "What can I help you two wonderful girls with? A drink? Wanna sing? I bet you two will do a lovely duet. How about a little Mariah Carey? Poor girl, she's going through a rough match but I bet she's going to make a stun…"

"Leave," Ying-fa said firmly to the lingering bartender, a note of power behind her voice.

The bartender immediately scuttled off towards the end of the bar as Lorne stared at Ying-fa worriedly.

"Well, aren't you a delightful Wicca. I'll bet you'll make some lovely magic on sta…"

Before Lorne could say another word, Ying-fa held her palm outwards, her fingers pointing towards his face. She sucked in a breath and blew it out across her palm, a cloud of sparkling crimson dust gushing forwards and hitting Lorne straight in the face. The demon blinked in confusion, the dust rushing into his nostrils as he sucked it in.

"Now Sabrina, what was that little dust and light sho…"

"Silent," Ying-fa ordered.

Lorne immediately shut up, his red eyes glazing over.

"Sit down," Ying-fa continued.

Buffy kept a careful eye on the people around them just in case one of them noticed something was wrong with their host but the demon and human patrons unlike were too caught up in their own conversations and their drinks to notice two young women magically interrogating the owner.

Lorne jerkily sat down, his movements unnatural as though he was a wooden puppet and someone was clumsily manipulating his movements, which when Buffy thought about it was an adept analogy.

"Olario, where are you taking him?" Ying-fa got straight to the point.

"Safehouse," Lorne said, his voice mechanical and devoid of emotions.

"Address."

Lorne gave it to them.

"Who's protecting him?"

"Harmony and Illyria."

"Harmony?" Buffy gasped unable to stop herself.

Ying-fa shot Buffy a curious look but quickly continued to grill Lorne before the spell wore off.

"How powerful?"

"Illyria, she's the one to watch out for," Lorne told them passively.

"How are they taking them?"

"On foot," Lorne quickly outlined their intended route, Ying-fa nodding in satisfaction.

"Okay, in ten seconds you'll snap out of this and you will have no memory of us or anything concerning this certain event," Ying-fa commanded, "Ten… nine…"

* * *

Lorne suddenly jerked upright. 

"Hey, something wrong boss?" his demon bartender asked worriedly.

"No," Lorne shook his head, "Nothing… just… I don't know…"

The Host shrugged it off and returned his attention to the demon on stage who was belting out an Elvis classic.

"Now that Larry," he informed his bartender warmly, "Is magic."

* * *

"I wanna take this job," Buffy said firmly to her two friends once they were outside and safely in their car, "Alone." 

"Are you sure?" Ying-fa asked worriedly, "He said Illyria, whoever that is, was kinda powerful."

"Who is she?" Indy asked curiously, "I've never heard of her."

"Call Gil," Buffy commanded, "Get him to figure it out."

Indy nodded and pulled out her mobile phone punching in a series of numbers. She passed the phone to Buffy as it began ringing.

"Hello?" Buffy asked as someone picked up on the other side.

_'What?!?' _Tori's annoyed voice blared down the line.

"Umm… Gil there."

_'Yeah, I'll get him,' _Tori snapped.

There was a short pause as Tori transferred the phone to Gil.

"What's with her?" Buffy asked worriedly.

_'Horace, still isn't back. Tori's getting a bit antsy,' _Gil explained.

"Oh," Buffy took a deep breath, "Gil, who is Illyria. Apparently she's protecting Olario."

_'Illyria. Oh god,' _Gil gasped.

The line fell silent.

"Gil?"

_'Sorry, it's just,' _Gil sighed, _'Illyria was a powerful demon warrior back in the ancient times before humans. She was basically a goddess but like all pure demons she lost her grip in this reality and her essence was sealed away. About a year ago, her essence was released and it infected a host… Illyria was reborn but her human shell couldn't handle the full powers she possessed. She was stripped of them…'_

"So she's powerless?" Buffy asked hopefully.

Gil snorted.

_'Not likely. Whilst she's lost her ability to create vortexes and manipulate times, she is still super-strong, invulnerable to weapons, ruthless, cunning and a skilled fighter. Bottom line, she's tough. Bruce Lee tough."_

"A demonic goddess with super strength," Buffy mused, "Been there, done that."

_'Pardon?_'

"Nothing," Buffy said hurriedly, "Thanks Gil."

_'Good luck._'

Buffy hung up. Ying-fa and Indy looked at her waiting for her answer.

"I'm doing this alone. You guys head back to the warehouse and I'll find my own way home, okay?"

"But…" Indy began, Ying-fa half a second behind her.

"No buts," Buffy snapped, "Go back."

Recognising the look on Buffy's face (which looked extremely similar to Willow's resolve face… if they happened to know what it looked like), they realised it was impossible to change her mind.

"Fine," Indy sighed. "Oh, Ying?" Buffy asked.

"What?" Ying-fa said curtly. "I'll need the knife."

* * *

_Los Angeles _

_May 6, 2005_

_9:12 P.M._

Slayer and demon circled each other, eyeing each other warily preparing themselves for the fight to come.

"Are we going to do this?" Buffy asked suddenly smirking at Illyria.

"Lets."

Illyria threw the first punch.

The demon warrior blinked in confusion as her fist completely missed the slayer who had nimbly sidestepped the blow. Buffy grabbed Illyria's outstretched arm and kicking her twice in the ribs, Illyria grimaced and tired to break away but Buffy yanked her back punching her in the face before finally letting go and sending her stumbling backwards with a spinning roundhouse kick to the chest.

"How dare you strike me, you tainted mortal!" Illyria hissed, "I will rip out your spine…"

"Grind my bones to make your bread?" Buffy shot at her, "Please, Blue Ranger not exactly new or threatening."

Illyria moved faking a right hook before swinging in with a left clipping Buffy across the chin. The Slayer stumbled backwards, Illyria pressing the advantage coming in with a combination of left-right jabs and wild kicks. Buffy sidestepped a kick, blocking a hook before elbowing Illyria in the throat, the demon fell backwards clutching her injured neck as she gasped for breath.

"Illyria, I faced demonic goddesses before and compared to her, you're not remotely scary," Buffy snapped, "I grinded the last goddess to paste so what do you think I'm going to do with you?"

Illyria retorted with a flurry of ancient curses before flinging herself at the slayer. Buffy blocked one blow but was knocked backwards by another. Illyria leapt into a back flip kicking Buffy in the stomach and head in the process before landing nimbly and hitting the slayer's chest with an open palm. Buffy fell backwards gasping for breath as Illyria stared coldly at her.

"Mortal," she hissed, "My powers are a star to your mere spark. I will crush your neck and use your skull as my drinking cup."

"Okay, descriptive threats. Ew," Buffy hefted up the crossbow she had dropped before, "But are we going to talk all night? Let's just get this over and done with, I haven't slept in a whole day and I for one like to get this wrapped up quickly cause my skin dries up if I don't get my beauty sleep."

Illyria came at her again, Buffy slipped another arrow into the crossbow and fired but the wooden missile merely broke once it hit Illyria's skin. Buffy's eyebrows shot up in surprise but had no time to ponder this as Illyria rushed at her. She ducked Illyria's wild punch making, cracking Illyria in the chin with the crossbow. The blue demon's head snapped back as Buffy hit Illyria's head again with the crossbow. Her next swing slammed into the other side of Illyria's face before jabbing the crossbow into her stomach and pushing her away. Illyria steaded herself before slowly and calmly turned her neck side to side, a few gentle cracks could be heard as she moved into a defensive stance, one which Buffy had never seen before.

"If I had my powers," she said coldly.

"You'll cheat?" Buffy finished loading her crossbow with a fresh arrow.

Illyria narrowed her flashing blue eyes at the petite blonde before charging her again. Buffy blocked her kick with the crossbow before hitting the ground and leg-swept Illyria. The demon stumbled as Buffy jumped up and pushed her against a brick wall roughly, in a fluid movement she swung around and fired.

The arrow whistled through the air before coming to an abrupt halt as it slammed into the cowering Olario's throat. The demon gave a choked cry before collapsing, his lifeblood oozing over the dirty alley straight. Illyria gave a howl of rage before leaping into another back-flip using the wall as leverage and throwing herself at Buffy. They fell in a tangle of limbs, Buffy desperately trying to get up but Illyria dragged her down choking the slayer with her bare hands.

"I think I will rip off your head," Illyria hissed in Buffy's ear, dragging both of them up until they were standing, "And display it in my kingdom as a warning to all."

Buffy swung the crossbow and hit one of Illyria's knees; she winced at the loud crunching sound as metal hit flesh. Illyria roared with pain and let go of the slayer, Buffy pushed Illyria away before throwing the crossbow at the demon's face.

"Keep with the times," she growled, "Monarchy is so the dark ages."

She reached into a special leather holster under her jacket and pulled out an ornamental dagger. Light gleamed off its razor edge highlighting the runes and symbols carved into the metal.

"A weapon?" Illyria spat favouring one knee, "You think that'll stop me?!?"

Buffy lunged at her, batting Illyria's arms away as she swung the dagger at Illyria's stomach. It hit the thick crimson leather armour Illyria worn and suddenly the dagger blazed with an inner emerald light, the air around the point where blade hit leather warped and twisted, Buffy bearing down on the dagger with all her strength. Finally with a huge flash of light, magic shattered Illyria's godly defences, the dagger plunging through armour and flesh alike. Buffy smiled up into Illyria's stunned azure eyes.

Buffy pushed Illyria away as the demon staggered backwards staring at the dagger sticking out from her gut stupidly, blinking in confusion.

"The answer to your question?" Buffy taunted, "Yeah, I think I can stop you."

Illyria stared up at her with her bright blue eyes before collapsing. Buffy stared around at the chaos around her, Harmony lying knocked out amongst a pile of shattered crates, Olario dead on the floor and Illyria with a dagger in her gut. Taking on last look, Buffy whirled around and sprinted away from the alley.

As she ran, a single word burst from her lips unwanted and yet inevitably uttered.

"Angel."

A flood of memories rushed back, Buffy beat them back stuffing them back in the corner of her mind where she kept her memories of her old self. That wasn't her anymore. This is what she was now: a ruthless, cold-blooded, a killer.

This was her.

She was Glory.

* * *

A/Notes: 

Okay, this chapter was kinda long and low on the action but a whole bunch of it was needed to set up Buffy's new life. But now worry! Plenty more action on the way!


	3. Love and War

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! But don't stop… please! Sorry about the delay, school stared again so busy was had by all.

I've had some people question the timeline and yes, I have changed it a little:

It is two years after Chosen, what happened to the others will be written later.

And with Angel, Season 5 took place but one, Spike never came back. Sorry, but I feel it cheapens his death and no, I will not bring him back in this fic (sorry! No flames please!). And let's assume that whole Circle of Black Thorn thing never existed and they never existed, so Angel is still head of L.A. Wolfram and Hart along with the others. And Lindsey is a good guy… sorta…

Please R+R!

Emptiness Within 

**Chapter 3: Love and War**

Harmony slowly stumbled to her feet looking around frantically.

"That was cheating!" she yelled, a note of whinging in her voice, "You can't do that! I'm a super-villain now, I can take you on!"

No answer but a low moan caught the blonde vampire's attention. She whirled around and gaped at the sight of Illyria on the ground, a knife stuck in her gut.

"Oh my god," Harmony gasped stumbling over to the demon warrior.

Illyria looked up at her with dull blue eyes.

"Slayer," she coughed weakly, "Got away."

With that Illyria fainted, Harmony frantically shook the demon trying to wake her up.

"Illyria?" she shrieked frantically, "Illyria?"

She glanced to her right and freaked as she saw the demon they were supposed to be transporting dead on the ground with a crossbow bolt embedded into his throat. She jumped up glancing around fearfully waiting for Buffy to jump out and stake her. When five minutes pass and the blonde Slayer didn't, Harmony seemed to calm a bit but she was still quaking.

"Okay," she whispered to herself, "Angel. Got to get Angel. Got to get the boss. He'll know what to do."

She pulled out a cell phone from her low cut jean skirt and punched in a series of numbers.

"Angel?" she whimpered into the phone as the vampire picked up, "We have a little problem."

* * *

The door to the warehouse swung open revealing a dishevelled Buffy. The others sitting around in the kitchen like before started at her sudden appearance.

"Oh god," Indy jumped down her from stool and walked hurriedly to her friend, "Are you okay?"

Buffy nodded, staring stupidly at the blood that stained her hands.

"I got him," she whispered.

"I'm guessing yay?" Ying-fa joined them, "Is something wrong?"

Buffy shook herself gaining back her composure as she forced a smile on her face.

"Fine, dandy, peaching," she chirped.

"How was it?" Indy asked, a worried look still on her face as she led Buffy into the kitchen.

"Hard," Buffy sighed, "Gil, you were right. She was a tough puppy to crack."

"The knife work?" Ying-fa asked.

Buffy nodded.

"I left it in her gut," she confirmed.

Ying-fa grinned wickedly but then she realised the full extent of what Buffy had just said.

"You left it there?" Ying-fa pouted, "I like that knife."

"I'll get you a new one," Buffy promised.

"So it was an all out bitch fight?" Ryan asked perkily.

Buffy narrowed her eyes at him, silently daring him to go on. Ryan smirked at her, relishing her reaction.

"Man, if only we could've got some mud and an arena," Ryan mused, sending Buffy a subtle smirk, "Then we could've made some easy cash."

"How about we gut you and sell your pretty organs on the black market to make some easy cash?" Ying-fa wanted to know.

Buffy looked around confused realising the full group was here sitting around the kitchen counter as they were prone to do.

"Where's Tori and Horace?" she asked, "Is he back yet?"

Gil, Ying-fa, Indy and Ryan shot her a look, Buffy blushed realising what they meant.

"Again?" she asked incredulously.

"Hormones," Indy explained.

"It's making her crazy..." Gil began.

"And horny," Ying-fa added.

"A lot," Indy finished.

Buffy really didn't want to know that piece of information but having been forced on her, she tried to forget about it. Wearily she dumped herself onto a stool and laid her head tiredly on the kitchen counter, her arms cushioning her head.

"Any injuries?" Gil asked, his grey eyes studying her carefully.

"Bruises," Buffy yawned, "They'll heal."

"Are you sure? Internal bleeding, fractures, brain damage..." Indy shot a look at Ryan who was just on the verge of making some snark comment, "Don't. Even. Think. About. It."

"Think about what?" Ryan was all batting eyelids and innocent looks trying his best to adopt a sinless choirboy look.

The female occupants of the room all shot him sinister looks, Gil fidgeting nervously as Ryan continued to smile at them. Simultaneously all three women rolled their eyes together at him and turned back to their conversation.

"No and no," Buffy smiled warmly at Indy, "I'm fine. Shower and sleep is what I need."

"So another hit for Ring," Ying-fa leaned back in her stool and smirked, "Damn are we good or what?"

"Still, this hit must've hurt Wolfram and Hart..." Gil frowned thoughtfully.

"So?"

"I wonder if they're going to retaliate."

* * *

"Are you sure?" Angel grabbed Harmony roughly glaring down at her shocked face.

The blonde vampire stared up at her boss, shivering under the intensity of his gaze. Behind him stood Wesley, Gunn, Lorne and Lindsey each of them watching their 'conversation', read interrogation, with a range of emotions on their faces. Wesley looked serious and worried, not that those emotions were any stranger to him ever since Fred's death and subsequent spectacular metamorphosis to Illyria. The other three showed faintly veiled interest with some worry.

Harmony nodded quickly. Angel immediately let got of her and began pacing the room, seemingly unaware of his audiences.

"How?" he kept whispering over and over again, "Why?"

"She's gone rogue," Wesley muttered.

"Never," Angel glared at him, "Buffy will never g..."

"How do you know?" Lindsey asked bluntly.

The ex-lawyer, now reinstated again, stared at his ex-rival silently daring him to admit the truth.

"I know her," Angel stopped, "She'll never do something like this..."

"She killed a demon, didn't she?" Gunn asked, "I don't see what's the big deal. A dead demon is a good demon."

"Hey!" Lorne broke in, "Don't start lumping all of us together, some of us just want to be all 'the hills are alive with the sound of music' not destroy the world."

"How did she find out about him?" Lindsey asked once again daring to ask the hard questions, "Only we knew about the plan to shift Olario to the safehouse..."

They all stared at each other, more than one long look darting towards Harmony.

"Hello?" Harmony snapped annoyed, "If I helped her do you think I would've let myself be knocked out?"

"She has a point," Gunn conceded.

Harmony huffed loudly stalking straight out of room as the men looked at each other.

"How's the Smurf?" Lorne asked lightly.

"She's fine," Wesley muttered tersely, "Once we took the dagger out, the wound sealed right up."

"That's the thing I don't get. I thought the blue goddess couldn't be harmed," Gunn spoke up.

Wesley nodded.

"By normal weapons that is true but the dagger was imbued with powerful magic," he explained, "That magic managed to punch through Illyria's godly defences and hurt her."

"Only someone really powerful could do that," Lindsey thought aloud.

"Can we track it?" Angel asked suddenly.

Everyone stared at the vampire.

"Can we?" he demanded angrily.

"Sure, may take a while," Wesley assured.

"Good, get every last seer, witch or whatever the hell we have on it," Angel snapped, "I want the person who created the knife found. Now."

The others nodded before making their way towards the door however Lindsey lingered back for a while.

"Are you okay?"

"Why do you care?" Angel snapped.

Lindsey shrugged as if it didn't bother him either way and left. As soon as he closed the door behind him, he ducked into an empty work cubicle. Pulling out his mobile, he punched in a few numbers.

"Hello?" he whispered as someone on the other line picked up, "Yeah, it's me. I've found her."

* * *

"Found it!"

"Found what?"

From her lying position on the couch, Ying-fa looked curiously at Indy as the dark skinned woman held up something triumphantly in her hand.

"What is that?" Gil asked curiously.

Buffy had gone up to bed and just as soon as she had disappeared into her room, Indy had disappeared into what was roughly their storage room and had begun a noisy search for something that remained a mystery to the others.

"This," Indy held up a dagger, an exact carbon copy of the one Ying-fa had enchanted for Buffy to take out Illyria, "I remember when we stole it from that collector there was a set of them."

"Wicked!" Ying-fa eagerly jumped out from her position on the couch, bounding towards Indy and snatching the dagger from her, "I didn't know we had this!"

"Oh great, Ying has another fancy glorified nail file to play with," Ryan snorted.

"Ryan, in a house full of women that can nail your ass down in world record time you sure are a chauvinist male pig," Ying-fa retorted with even looking at him instead choosing to admire the dagger.

"Awww... and you wouldn't have me any other way," Ryan teased.

"Actually I want you vivisected and roasting in hell," Ying-fa snapped.

"Oh my god, they're like the Itchy and Scratchy show," Indy muttered rolling her eyes as Ryan and Ying-fa glared at each other.

Gil hummed the theme song to the show watching the usual Ryan and Ying-fa show carefully, it always guaranteed entertaining watching. Indy, forever the peacemaker decided to step in.

"Hey, guys," she called breaking up at the Ryan vs. Ying-fa death match, "Remember that vampire nest I told you about?"

"The one downtown?" Ying-fa was still glaring at Ryan.

"I found out that they work for the Dark Marks," Indy noticed Ryan and Ying-fa's puzzled look and sighed, "That mob of chaos demons that hired us and tried to screw us over after we did that hit."

Ryan's eyes narrowed as he remembered that little incident, if it weren't for Buffy they would've died after the demons had turned on them with guns and swords.

"So?"

"Wanna party?"

Ying-fa and Ryan looked at her.

"Now?" they both asked simultaneously.

"Well, if we wait for day like we normally do it'll be no fun… plus Ying gets to try out her new fancy dagger and Ryan gets to prove he's a man," Indy couldn't help insulting the man.

"Hey!"

"And also Julian will be there," Indy added, "And I'm pretty sure you all know who that is."

"The bastard that started the shooting range on us?"

"Oh yeah."

Ying-fa beamed wickedly.

"Let's roll," she chirped leaping off the stool and sticking the dagger casually into her jean pocket.

"Bet you I can kill more of them than you," Ryan taunted unable to stop himself from throwing another verbal barb at the witch.

Ying-fa glared at him dangerously.

"Good grief," Indy moaned, "For the love of god, shut up."

She dragged Ryan away from the fuming Ying-fa, Gil bringing up the rear urging the witch along with him. The door opened into the night and they were off, closing the door behind them leaving behind a sleeping Slayer and a couple that were lost to the world.

* * *

"Why is it taking so long?" Angel demanded, in his frustration unknowingly shifting into his vampire face.

In any normal office block, all the employees would have began to panic and stampede out of the place but since this was Wolfram and Hart, they were more afraid that the vampire standing before them would fire rather then eat them.

"The dagger is shrouded in power magic," one of the company's seers explained patiently, "It's taking a while for us to destroy the protective wards around it and sense the true essence of its owner. But we should get the information soon."

"You better," Angel snarled threateningly.

The seer fought back the urge to roll her eyes but instead gave a polite bow before leaving the boss's spacious office. As soon as she had left, Wesley stepped in.

"What?" Angel snapped.

"I'm just wondering what you plan to do to her once we find her," Wesley asked delicately, not wanting to spark Angel's temper.

The souled vampire sighed and rubbed his temper, a look of defeat on his face. The ex-Watcher walked calmly over to his boss's desk and stood over him watching him carefully.

"I've thought and thought about it..." Angel began quietly.

"And?" Wesley prompted.

"I don't know," Angel angrily smacked the smooth surface of his mahogany desk with the palm of his hand in frustration, "I don't know if she's just confused or... or... or..."

"Evil?" Wesley calmly sat down ignoring the evil death glare Angel sent him, "We have to be practical here. If she's gone evil... or rogue maybe it would be better for the Slayers to handle her."

"Over my dead body!" Angel roared.

"You're dead already," Wesley reminded him, deadpanned.

"My dusted body," Angel snapped, "We have no idea what they will do to her. They migh..."

"Angel, this is the Slayers we're talking about not the Watcher Council," Wesley eyed him calmly, "I doubt they'll try to kill her."

The vampire calmed down slightly but a determined look soon spread across his face.

"We'll decide what to do once we have her here," Angel said, a note of finality in his voice, "Let's just think about capturing her first."

"Angel, she's a Slayer and need I remind you, perhaps the strongest and most resourceful Slayer of all time," Wesley paused, "In short she'll stomp you down into the ground without batting an eyelid and as for the rest of us..."

Wesley shrugged not needing to go on.

"I've thought of that," Angel admitted.

"And?"

"That's why we'll have mages on hand."

* * *

"Are you sure this is it?" Ying-fa asked dubiously.

"Yes," Indy snapped a little annoyed, "Why do you guys keep doubting that?"

"Because well..." Ying-fa trailed off.

"It looks like a penthouse," Gil supplied.

All four of them looked up at the expensive building noting the almost overwhelming amount of marble used in its construction. The door itself was made of ebony or some other kind of precious wood and was huge almost twice the height of Gil who stood well over Ryan's head, who was tall for a human. Ying-fa's eyes could just pick out the expensive imported tiles framing the windows finishing the impressive picture the penthouse presented.

"It is a lot different from our usual vampire dump," Ryan muttered.

"Different?" Ying-fa snorted, "This is like the Trump mansion, your usual vampire dig is a shack in the ground."

Indy sighed.

"Are we going to do this or are we going to stand outside?" she demanded, "Choose."

"We knock?" Gil asked making the decision for them.

"Oh yeah," Ying-fa smirked.

She held up her hands and everybody backed away a little as the air around her fingers began rippling, deforming into spectacular shapes. With no warning at all, the distorted air undulated from her fingers and leapt at the tall door. Magic slammed into the wood ripping gouges and carving splinters marks all over its varnished surface, with a loud bang the door exploded inwards shattering into a thousand pieces as it hit the ground.

"Ding, dong," Ying-fa smiled wickedly at the damage she had caused.

She turned around meeting the incredulous stares of her friends.

"What?" she asked casually.

"You have issues," Ryan informed her, "Deep seated issues that need to be Oprah-ed out of you."

"Who died and made you Dr. Phil?" Ying-fa demanded, "Anyway, we have access and weapons so a little yay for me?"

"Yay," Gil supplied helpfully.

The group fell silent as the sound of slamming doors and pounding feet rang through the air. Instinctively each of them took up a position, Ryan was point with Indy and Ying-fa flanking him and Gil was rear-guard, all of this was done without a single word being exchanged between them a testament to their teamwork skills. Calmly the quartet waited as the vampire appeared into their line of vision.

"What the hell?" the blonde-haired vampire snarled as he surveyed the damage and the four people waiting for him at the door, "Who the hell are you people?"

"Bored people," Indy informed him, a wicked smile spread across her face, "But somehow I think this night is going to get a lot more interesting."

Ryan leapt forwards scooping up a long sliver of wood from amidst the ruins of the shattered door as he sailed through the air. He landed nimbly blocking the vampire's wild right punch before slamming the wooden stake into his chest. The vampire exploded into dust.

"One down," Ryan taunted.

More vampires appeared racing down a long flight of stairs towards them.

"Hey, Ryan!" Ying-fa called, "You wanna bet?"

"Bet what?"

"Who can take out the most vamps?"

"You're on," Ryan challenged.

Ying-fa smirked.

"Come on Count Wannabes," she taunted jumping into the fray, "Let's party!"

Indy and Gil joined in and it soon turned into a free for all melee. Ying-fa immolated a handful of vampires on the spot with fistfuls of magical fire, across the room Ryan was kick and punching vampires with deadly precisions occasionally staking a vampire with blindingly fast strikes that caught its victim unaware.

"Ying!" Indy yelled.

Ying-fa ducked leaving a vampire open to Indy's attack. She threw a stake at the demon with pinpoint accuracy, wooden weapon smashing into its heart and reducing it to dust in the blink of an eye. She was tackled suddenly from the side, her attacker and her both landing heavily onto the ground. Indy managed to end up on top kicking the vampire twice in the face before snatching up another splinter of wood and driving it through the demon's heart reducing him to dust.

Gil was a sight to behold, long talons shot out from his fingers, spines poking out through his back. He had no need for weapons, using brute force to beat the vampires down occasionally decapitating them with a swipe of his claws. Vampires were flying through the air, no match for the demon's superior strength.

Ryan punched a vampire away and whirled around just in time to see a fresh batch of vampires come roaring down the stairs wielding semi-automatic rifles. One of them swung his weapon up and prepared to fire but Ryan was quicker.

"YING!" he roared.

Ying-fa turned away from her victim burning him with a whispered word. She quickly saw their new danger and attacked with devastating force.

"INFERNOS!" she barked.

Skeins of red flames leapt forwards and devoured the vampires reducing them to glowing embers. With a flick of her hands, she called one of the dropped guns to her the searing heat of the metal seemingly having no effect on her. She swung the weapon around and fired expertly.

A vampire went down a bullet slamming through his eye; she raked his neck with a volley of shots succeeding in separating his head. Gil tore another vampire's head off, the remains turning to dust in his clawed hands. Roaring with rage, he whirled on his next victim punching the vampire with taloned fists that ripped bloody holes through its chest.

Ryan and Indy body-slammed a vampire into the ground, Indy dropping down and dusting the vampire before lashing out with a leg sweep that sent another tumbling down. Ying-fa crippled another with a shot to the knees, Ryan finishing it off with a stake thrust into its un-beating heart.

"Is this cool or what?" Ying-fa yelled over the din of the battle.

She dropped the gun and reached into her pocket pulling out what she really wanted to test: the dagger.

"Da mihi," she chanted, dark energy crackling around her.

The magic seemed to slam into her body chasing the whites away from her eyes as Ying-fa looked up smiling wickedly. She punched a vampire in the face sending it flying backwards twirling around she sliced another vampire's throat open with her dagger before another pass decapitated it neatly. Its body crumbled to dust, which was quickly scattered by the movement of the raging battle. A trio of vampires jumped Gil attacking him simultaneously and succeeded in bringing him down but Indy was immediately amongst them lashing out with kicks and punches that drove them back. Ryan hurled a stake at the fray succeeding in reducing one to dust as Indy staked the other two in quick succession.

"JULIAN!" Ying-fa roared, her voice magically amplified, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

As the battle raged on, nobody noticed the tiny girl that sat at the top of the stairs staring down at them with wild opened eyes.

* * *

"We've got it!" the seer roared into the room, a triumphant smile on her face, "It took us a while but..."

"Where?" Angel demanded not caring about the smaller details.

"It's in another city but we can easily teleport there," the seer informed her boss, "I'll need to arrange some magic users."

"Do it," Angel commanded, "Now!"

The seer swanned out of the room leaving Angel behind in his office. Angel immediately whirled around and reached for his phone punching in a series of number.

"Harmony," he muttered, "Assemble two task forces and get Gunn, Wesley, Lindsey and Illyria if she's okay. Assemble them at sub-basement 5."

He paused listening to Harmony's excited chatter.

"Fine," he sighed knowing that if was useless to argue, "You can tag along."

He hung up and swept out of his office grabbing his black jacket on the way. Everybody he passed stared at him puzzled and awed at the aura of determination and fearlessness that hung around like an invisible veil.

And every one of them knew.

He was a vampire on a mission.

* * *

Ying-fa and Indy were working together, vampires falling under their aggressive attacks. Indy was impressive but the magic-boosted Ying-fa would've given Buffy a run for her money. Vampires screamed as the two girls ploughed straight through them, Ryan provided backup sharpshooting with one of the semi-automatic rifles that the vamps had dropped after Ying-fa had roasted them. The vampires were falling back; limping, bleeding, broken and demoralized. Ying-fa and Indy pressed the advantage pushing the demons further and further backwards, Gil stalking several steps behind them roaring menacingly.

"STOP!" a loud booming voice ripped through the air, louder than even Gil's threatening growls.

The melee stopped as simultaneously both sides looked up at the landing that perched out from the level above them. Standing there, a tall demon dressed in a neat brown suit glared down at them. Ying-fa smirked as she realised who this demon was.

"Julian," she spat, "How nice to see you."

"What the hell are you doing?" 'Julian' spat, his red-scaled face growing redder with anger with each passing second.

"Now, is that any way to speak to a friend who you tried to gun down last time we spoke," Ying-fa turned to Indy, "Is that really?"

"I think it's rude," Indy added casually, "Maybe we should teach them lesson."

"You think you can defeat me?" Julian boomed.

"No, the question is do you think you defeat us?" Ryan arched an eyebrow up at the chaos demon.

"Of course I can," the demon snapped.

Ryan rolled his eyes.

"With that army?"

He casually pointed his rifle at the cowering vampires before them. Julian seemed to glance down at his vampires for the first time the members of Ring smirked as the demon visibly gulped.

"Maybe we should make a deal…" he began weakly, his red scales turning almost pink by now.

"NOOOO!"

Everyone jumped as another voice tore through the air. A small girl dashed across the landing to cling onto Julian's leg as everyone looked on in surprise.

"Who the…" Ryan muttered.

"You must not make a deal with them," the young girl said with a seriousness that belayed her youthful appearance, "They're the guards of her."

After a small stunned pause, it was Julian who asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Her?" the demon seemed to consider the little girl's with deadly seriousness as the Ring members glanced at each other in confusion.

"The her, it fears her. The dark shadow is coming but it fears her," the girl whispered dreamily.

"She's a seer," Indy realised.

"Not a seer," Ying-fa reached out with her magic and instantly realised there was more to this seemingly innocent girl, "She's a chaos demon."

"Her?" Ryan barked disbelievingly.

Gil sniffed the air delicately and nodded.

"Ying is right. She is of demonic origin… a half breed."

"You mean…" Indy trailed off uncomfortably.

Gil nodded gravely.

"What?" Ying-fa was confused.

"A demon and a human got jiggy with it," Ryan added helpfully.

Ying-fa's jaws dropped as an unwanted mental image flashed in her mind.

"Ew."

"Who is she?" Julian repeated.

"The twice-born killer," the girl looked up at the chaos demon, "It's coming daddy. The hunger, it thirsts and lusts and knows no stop. It's coming but its seeds are already here. Sowing… growing… sprouting… but it fears her. The twice-born killer."

"Right," Indy glanced at the others, "Rings any bells?"

The other three shook their heads. Indy frowned at them.

"The twice-born killer," she mused, "Who could… OH CRAP!"

"What?"

"Killer… slayer… the twice-born slayer… Buffy!"

"It's coming for her," the girl continued with perfect timing, "It's coming…"

"Buffy's in danger?" Ying-fa demanded.

They all stared at each other.

"Let's wrap this up and get the hell out of here," Ryan snapped decisively.

"Hey, I ain't the one with the gun!"

"Oh right," Ryan lifted his gun and aimed it at Julian who was still staring down at the little seer child.

"Sorry to do this to you… it seems so cold and impersonal. I rather torture you but…" Ryan sighed calling out to the demon.

The chaos demon turned to look at him in horrified shock, his eyes bulging out of his skull his scaled skin positively white. Ryan shrugged giving the demon a sheepish smile before pulling the trigger. The seer half-demon screamed as Julian's head exploded in a spray of red.

"Daddy!" she shrieked.

Julian's headless body collapsed to the blood-soaked ground.

"Sorry, boys," Ying-fa turned to the shell-shocked vampires, "It's been fun and all but…"

She glanced at the shattered remains of the door and smiled. Slivers and splinters of wood slowly rose into the air, spinning around until their sharps ends all pointed at the cowering demons. Ying-fa smiled disarmingly at them and gestured. One by one they exploded into the dust under a hail of flying wooden shrapnel.

"What should we do with her?" Indy asked glancing up at the sobbing seer demon.

Ying-fa looked up calmly at the child, an unreadable expression in her dark eyes. Indy turned to stare at her slowly realising what the witch was going to do.

"NO!" she screamed.

"Infernos."

The demonic seer exploded into flames, eager fire devouring the child as everyone stared at Ying-fa in shock. The witch shrugged at them, her completely black eyes crackling with power.

"First rule of revenge," she whispered, "Never leave anyone alive."

Ignoring her friends' stunned silence she turned around and strolled out of the shattered building, several seconds later her friends followed her.

"We need to get to Buffy, now."

* * *

Tori glanced sleepily at the man sprawled beside her and smiled at the sight of Horace sleeping like a baby. Glancing down at her stomach ruefully, she wondered why that comparison was used when _her _baby was not sleeping at all.

"Please, sweetie," she pleaded to her unborn child, "Mommy's got to sleep. No more kicking."

A slightly harder kick than normal was her only reply. Smiling softly, Tori stretched and realised she was feeling extremely hungry. Slowly freeing herself from Horace's embrace, she reached for her robe and pulled it on. Padding softly to the door, she pushed it open and peered outside.

It was dark and surprisingly quiet. The others had either gone to sleep or gone out. Shrugging, she waddled over to the stairs her stomach make her movements awkward. Pausing at the top to gather herself, she took in a deep breath before walking downwards towards her goal: the fridge.

Finally getting into the kitchen, Tori hurriedly walked over to the frosty box full of food-y delights (Buffy's words not her) and pulled it open. Biting her lip, she considered her options.

"Sandwich?" Tori asked herself, "Hmm… ice-creams? Mini-pizzas? Hot dogs? Cheese? Pickles with honey?"

Smiling to herself, she made her choice pulling out the jar of pickles. This particular combination always made the others gag but it wasn't her fault they tasted so nice together, damn it!

Waddling over to a cupboard, she pulled out a jar of honey and set both jars onto the kitchen island. Making herself comfortable, she began to unscrew the lid of the pickles.

"BOOM!"

Tori shrieked as their door suddenly exploded inwards. Bright light burnt away the shadows as loud voices tore through the air.

"GET IN! NOW!" a male voice roared, "NOW!"

Tori could only back away in horror as dark figures filled the room. Standing so close to her she could see they were heavily armed men complete with black Kevlar gearing and night-vision goggles, they surrounded her pointing their weapons at her body. Finally a tall man with a long black jacket seemed to simply melt out from the shadows and appear in front of her.

"Where is Buffy?" he demanded, glaring down at her.

"Right here," a clear voice rang through the building.

Everyone looked up to see Buffy standing above the flight of stairs glaring down at all of them. But it was the tall pale man that stood before Tori that took the brunt of her green-eyed gaze.

"Angel."

* * *

Buffy tossed and turned in her bed, muttering feverishly as short snippets of her fight with Illyria circled endlessly in her head.

"No!" she whispered furiously, "Back off! Back off, blue bitch!"

Suddenly a new image began appearing in her mind's eye.

She was standing on a grassy hill, the sun gently beating down on her face. She looked up and suddenly a black shadow raced across the sky plunging everything around her in darkness. She glanced to right then her left and then right again. Standing there moving towards her were five figures, their faces and features hidden by the darkness.

"It is coming," a small girl appeared before her looking up at her, "And it fears you."

"Who?" Buffy asked kneeling down so her and girl's eyes were level, "Who is coming."

"The shadow," the girl looked at the five figures drifting towards them, "Those are its seeds."

Buffy glanced at the five shadows and could feel her slayer's senses screaming at her, warning her of danger. She glanced back at the girl and was shocked to see that the innocent face was now twisted into a demonic visage but when she spoke her voice was still the same.

"It's coming but it's also here. It's caught in between but its shadow is spreading… soon it will be free and the world will burn."

"Who's coming?"

The girl stared at her calmly.

"Chaos."

Buffy jumped back hurriedly as with a loud whoosh, the girl turned into a column of flame. Shrieks of pain could be heard over the roar of fire. Even after the fire had burned out, the scream went on and on and on…

Until Buffy realised she was awake and there was screaming ringing through the air. It took her several seconds to realise who it was that was scr…

"TORI!" Buffy leapt out of bed, her sensitive Slayer's hearing picking out the sounds of heavy footsteps and talking.

She raced over to her door and yanked it open, running out to the top of the stairs. She glanced down and gritted her teeth as she realised who that was standing in front of Tori, trying to intimidate her with his size.

"Where is Buffy?" the man barked.

"Right here," Buffy snapped coldly.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Angel."

He turned to stare at her. Time seemed to stand still as Slayer and vampire, past lovers, stared at each other. Buffy's eyes were cold emeralds whilst Angel's reflected his longing and want.

"Buffy," he said finally, quietly.

"Surprised to see you here," Buffy tried to keep it polite for now.

She glanced at the terrified Tori and told her with subtle eye movements she had everything under control. The woman visibly relaxed.

A door behind her burst open as Horace, dishevelled and half-dressed, dashed out of his and Tori's shared bedroom. He took one look at the scene below him and gasped loudly.

"What the hell?" he muttered to Buffy.

"These people were just about to leave," she told her friend.

She turned to regard Angel.

"Weren't you?"

"No," the vampire said firmly.

"Oh?" Buffy arched a delicate eyebrow at him.

"I'm here to take you into custody for the murder of Olario."

"I didn't know the police deal with demons these day," Buffy remarked innocently.

"Can we crush her now?" a cold voice asked from amidst the crowd of people that surrounded Angel.

Buffy narrowed her eyes as she realised Illyria was down there.

"Hey, Blue Ranger. Knife wound okay?" she tossed at the demon.

Blue eyes glared at her.

"You dare mock me? I will crush you limbs and use your splintered bones as my toothpick," the demonic goddess hissed.

"Ooo… scary. Not."

"Buffy, please. We can settle this peacefully," a distinctly British voice pleaded.

"Well, if it isn't Wesley Wyndham-Pryce," Buffy smirked, "Hmm… not much of the tweed these day I see."

Ex-watcher and Slayer stared at each other, Wesley trying to convey all he had learnt since his last meeting with Buffy through his eyes trying to show her that this time round he was not a man to mess with.

"Don't forget me!" a vapid voice chimed in.

"Get bent, Harm," Buffy drawled.

"Buffy, Wesley is right. We can do this peacefully…" Angel began.

"And if we don't?"

"I'll hurt your friend here," Angel growled eyeing Tori meaningfully.

"Hurting my friends again?" Buffy snapped, "Jeez, Angel you haven't got laid and lost your soul have you?"

The vampire was shocked to hear that Buffy would hurl such a below the belt verbal barb at him.

"Hey, Wesley remember that pathetic speech you gave me when you first came to Sunny-D?" Buffy asked casually ignoring Angel's shocked silence, "I think it was 'the three key points of a Slayer is preparation, preparation, preparation?'"

She smirked down at them.

"Well, I've been a good little Slayer. Cause I'm prepared."

Horace immediately closed his eyes knowing what was going to happen next; below them in the kitchen Tori did the same.

"SOLEIL!" Buffy barked.

The protective spells that Ying-fa had inlaid into the building immediately activated. First, every single pinpoint of light in the building died down plunging everything into complete darkness. Angel wondered what was going on, knowing that Buffy knew full well he could see perfectly in the dark. But his question was answered as the other part of the spell flared into life.

A blinding flash of light tore through the shadows, Angel was instantly blinded and sent reeling, the night-vision goggle wearing men all let out screams of pain as their gear reacted violently to the sudden flare. Buffy and Horace tore down the stairs at once taking advantage of their shock. Kicking and punching their way through the crowd, they charged straight for Tori.

"I will crush your bones!" Illyria howled leaping into their path.

Horace swung at her but the demon sent him flying with a simple swat of her hand. Buffy blocked the demon's next punch and gritted her teeth knowing with every second she wasted, the others were regrouping.

"NOW!" Angel roared.

Three figures wearing gold and red cloaks melted out from the crowd and surrounded the two combatants. The air thrummed with power as they began chanting, their voices getting higher and higher with every word they uttered. An invisible wind swept around them as tendrils of light began to sprout from the ground under their feet, Buffy gasped as she felt the air around her seem to become heavier and heavier with every passing second.

"Damn, magic," she growled.

With magic slowing her movements, the Slayer was getting punished by Illyria who seemed to be immune to the effects that were draining the Slayer.

"Illyria! BACK OFF!" Angel roared appearing beside the demon.

He physically hauled the demonic warrior away from Buffy as Harmony appeared at his side.

"Nyah!" she stuck her tongue out at Buffy, "Who's getting whaled on now?"

Buffy glared at her and tried to move towards them but the magic was now firmly in place and she found she couldn't move.

"I'm sorry, it had to go like this," Wesley murmured wearily, appearing in her line of vision.

"No, not me," a new voice said from behind them.

A ball of crackling blue energy struck the frozen Buffy, the Slayer's eyes widened in shock as she realised she could move again.

"Kicking your ass, is going to be so much fun," Ying-fa drawled from behind them.

The three mages whirled on her but the witch merely gestured and they fell to their knees clawing at their throats as though some invisible hands were choking them slowly.

"Hmmm… Illyria," Ying-fa grinned predatorily, "Goody, I've always wanted to fight a goddess."

Gil was casually swatting the commando-wannabes away from the up-coming battle. They flew through the air and landed in twisted piles of limbs as Buffy and Horace joined their friends. A deafening silence filled the air as the two sides sized each other up. Angel gritted his teeth and studied his opponents, slowly noting the seemingly flawless teamwork that existed between them.

"Wesley take the witch," he commanded.

"Horace, the man with the sword is yours," Indy whispered, "Buffy take on Illyria again. Ryan, take the blonde vamp. I'll handle the big one. Gil take the man with the axe. Got it?"

"Aye, aye captain," Ryan muttered eyeing Harmony.

It was Wesley and Ying-fa who struck first. The ex-watcher hurled a ball of fire that was easily deflected by the dark witch. Ryan leapt at Harmony executing a perfect mid-air spin kick to send the vampire stumbling.

"Ouch!" Harmony whined, "Women-beater!"

"Vapid whore," Ryan shot back.

"OH!" the vampire let out a shriek of anger and stomped her feet, "I'll get you!"

They charged at each other again meeting in flurry of punches and kicks even though Harmony was a demon with supernatural powers Ryan's experience was slowly giving him the upper hand as he began to beat the vampire back.

Horace ducked as Lindsey swung the broadsword he held in his hands at head-height. The Ring member leapt up to avoid an attempted leg amputation springing into a roll, he landed nimbly and lashed out with his feet bringing the lawyer down. Another kick knocked the sword away from the man but Lindsey proved surprisingly adept at hand-to-hand combat flipping up back to his feet and kicking Horace away from him with a quick flurry of snap-kicks. Taking advantage of Horace's pain, Lindsey leapt for his sword but the auburn haired man quickly recovered grabbing a nearby chair and hurling it at him, wood splintered on impact as the lawyer went down.

"I'm going for Tori!" he yelled.

"GO!" Indy snapped as she fought Angel.

The souled vampire was fast but Indy's legs worked like pistons throwing kicks that struck him over and over again in his face and chest. With a snarl, Angel grabbed her foot and tried to throw her away but the woman simply leapt into a back flip that ended up with her double-kicking Angel away. Indy landed nimbly, a sidekick shattering a nearby coffee table. She scooped up a jagged ended broken table leg and leapt at the vampire.

"Why am I not surprised the black man gets the big demon?" Gunn wondered aloud to himself as he faced off with Gil.

The purple demon snarled at him, claws and quills poised to tear and impale as Gunn hefted his axe.

"Come on Barney, let's rock," the axe-wielding man yelled.

Gunn was quick enough to dodge Gil's first swipe and thought he had the demon in the bag when he embedded his axe into the demon's side. Gil roared in pain before glaring at the black lawyer.

"Ow, that hurt," the demon said in a sophisticated voice that belayed his fierce countenance.

Gunn stared and began to back away slowly as Gil pulled the axe away from his body. He tossed it over his shoulder before stalking towards Gunn.

"Yo! A little help here?" he called to his fellow Wolfram and Hart employees.

But they were busy. Gunn risked a look behind him just in time to see Ying-fa effortlessly toss Wesley through the air with a spell, Illyria also saw this and roared with rage.

"YOU DARE HURT MY GUIDE?" she roared.

Buffy backhanded her.

"Concentrate on me!" she snapped, "Jeez, do all goddesses have short attention spans?"

Ying-fa stuck Wesley again with another spell, this one sent him crashing through a support post and into a wall. He slumped to the ground moaning lowly in pain.

"WES!" Gunn cried.

Gil seemed to tiptoe behind him, a bizarre sight for a demon so big and gently tapped Gunn on the shoulder. The man turned around just in time to see Gil lightly knock him on the head, he collapsed instantly. By now the commandos had recovered and were readying their weapons preparing to mow them all down.

"YING!" Gil roared.

Ying-fa whirled around and saw their danger.

"Bad boys," she wagged a finger at them, "DOWN!"

An invisible force pinned the men down onto the floor as they struggled widely. Illyria kicked Buffy away before leaping at Ying-fa, howling in rage. Indy was hit viciously by a haymaker from Angel, her rough stake flying out of her hands but as Angel took another swing buta diminutive blonde figure stepped up in front of him.

"Hello lover," Buffy drawled.

She grabbed his arm and seemingly effortlessly tossed him through the air. He landed on the couch, wood and fabric breaking under the impact. Ryan took that time to grab Harmony's hand when she tried to nail him with an open-palmed slap and hurled her onto Angel, the blonde vampire landed on her boss's gut driving the air from his lungs. Buffy look to her side and noticed the sword that had been kicked out of Lindsey's hand, grabbing it she strode calmly towards Harmony and Angel and stared down at them.

"How dare you?" she snapped coldly, "Come in here and threaten my friends? Now you're paying the whole bill for it, interested and all."

Angel stared up at her looking for any sign of mercy or love in her familiar face, but only coldness and fury gritted him.

"Buffy," he said weakly, "I can help."

"I don't need it," Buffy shot back.

With that she raised the sword above her head and slammed it down driving metal through Harmony and Angel's chest pinning both of them down. Both vampires roared in pain but Buffy ignored them turning around to survey the rest of the battle. Ying-fa was hurled fistfuls of energy at Illyria but the demon seemed to be unaffected by the attacks.

"I will crush you!" the demon goddess roared over and over again stalking slowly towards the dark witch.

"Irritite!" Ying-fa roared at the demon.

Vines burst from the ground and wrapped themselves around the demon's limbs halting her for a few precious seconds. As the demon fought with the woody chains, Ying-fa calmly pulled a gun from her jacket pocket.

"Those pathetic mortal tools would not hurt me," Illyria spat glaring at the gun.

"Oh?" Ying-fa calmly aimed it at the demon, "Nazei talu heliga matra."

Azure light bathed the gun as the witch calmly fired. The bullet ripped through the air, a trail of blue light trailing behind it like a comet's tail. Illyria's body jerked as the first bullet slammed into her chest shattering her godly defences and releasing a gush of red. A second bullet hit her then a third slammed into an area between the first two wounds. Ying-fa calmly dissolved the vines as the demon goddess stumbled to her knees, blood pouring from her wounds and mouth.

"How?"

"You just got your immortal ass kicked by someone by powerful," Ying-fa shrugged smiling softly at her, "You can't always be a top dog."

Illyria fell forwards as Ying-fa turned to her friends.

"So…" she began.

They all glanced around surveying the damage. Angel and Harmony pinned to the couch with a sword through their head, Illyria bleeding on the ground, Wesley lying slumped again a wall, Lindsey and Gunn both out cold. The commandos were still caught in Ying's spell, as was the mages, still clutching at their throat. Ying-fa ruthlessly slammed them down magically into the ground with a flick of her finger before cancelling the choking spell.

"There's probably reinforcements coming," Horace said quietly from his position in the kitchen with his pregnant lover.

"We better leave," Indy murmured.

She and Ryan turned to go as Gil and Ying-fa followed suit but Buffy stayed behind staring at Angel.

"You probably think I've gone rogue or something," she began slowly, "But I'm not. I'm not evil, I'm not crazy, I know what I am doing and it's my choice. I'm not Faith looking for your approval and acceptance. I want nothing from you except one thing. I want to be left alone."

With that she turned around and walked away with her friends, Angel staring after her through pain-fevered eyes.

"Buffy…" he whispered gently.

She turned to look at him.

"I'm sorry," she said, sincerity shining in her eyes.

And then she was gone as Angel slumped backwards and was plunged into darkness.

* * *


	4. The faces I know

Sorry about the massive delay but for some reason I'm having huge mental blocks on this fic! Sorry, I'll try to get the next chappie up as soon as possible but who knows when that'll be… PLEASE, PLEASE R+R!

Disclaimer: You know the drill… I'm not Joss

**Emptiness Within**

**Chapter 4: The faces I know**

It was night.

The sky was an ominous black, dark clouds denying the earth the moon's gentle rays. The stars were nowhere in sight and everything was still and silent.

It was as though the whole world was dead.

The trees were still, their leaves undisturbed by winds.

Darkness danced gleefully along the streets, racing along the roads, leaping onto walls and roofs claiming the world for itself.

It was everywhere.

Unstoppable.

Inevitable.

And in the darkness, evil dwelled.

A young girl walked through the darkness, pale skin blazing through the night as she peered fearfully over her shoulders. Her steps would quicken with panic and slow with fear in an endless cycle of watching and checking.

"What's little girl like you doing out on this cold freezing night?" a taunting voice called out to her.

With a horrified gasp, the girl whirled around, blue eyes widening in shock as a tall dark-haired man stepped out from the shadows.

"You don't want to be by yourself out here," the man grinned slyly at her, "It's a dangerous world."

He took a menacing step forwards.

"Why don't I help you home?"

The girl backed away slowly, her face pale in the streetlights. She almost stumbled over her own feet as the man took another step towards her.

"No… umm… uh… that'll… I mean… I'll be…" the girl trailed off, "Fine."

"But surely you don't want to be attacked do you?" the man sent her a predatory grin, "I can help you."

"No, I'm fine," the girl tried again.

The man leapt forwards and grabbed her arm as the girl began shrieking in pain.

"Get off me!" she screamed slapping at him "PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!"

The man laughed and wrenched her arm painfully.

"Help! Help!" he called out, his voice booming through the night.

The girl looked around with wide blue eyes hoping against all hope that someone would come to her rescue but silence and stillness prevailed. Slowly she looked up into the man's leering eyes.

"Scream all you want… no one is going to help you."

A small smile flickered across the young girl's face as the man's eyes widened in shock.

"You've got something," the girl whispered to him, "On your face."

In a blinding move, she sprung free from his grasp before punching him in the jaw. The man's head snapped backwards as the girl lashed out with her left foot catching him above the knee. He fell, screaming in pain, as the girl laughed.

"Scream all you want," she taunted, "No one is going to help you."

The man was rolling around on the rough gravel, his hands desperately clutching his knee as the girl looked on dispassionately.

"You sicken me," she drawled, her eyes flashing with fury, "I mean I get why vampires and all that are evil… I mean they're demons! You expect them to be evil but you… you're just a man. A human being and yet you choose to be evil. Why?"

The man looked up at her with pain-glazed eyes as the girl continued to stare down at him, studying him as though he was something she had never seen before.

"How… what are you?" he managed to choke out

"A human being making her choice," the girl said calmly as she walked away.

She suddenly stopped and turned around slowly.

"Get yourself to a hospital," she commanded quietly, "And if I ever find out you're pulling this crap again… you better be dead before I get to you."

She watched as the man slowly crawled to his feet before stumbling away throwing fearful glances at her as she sighed watching him scamper off into the night.

"Why?" she wondered sadly.

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of footsteps approaching her from behind.

"Slayer," a sinister voice hissed, malice coursing through that single word.

Rebecca Swain whirled around and faced the vampire, a small smile curling her lips.

"Finally," she said calmly, "Something I understand."

She whipped out her stake and lung forwards.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 

They came at her in a blur of swings and flying kicks.

Faith ducked under the first swing before lashing out with her left foot catching one of her opponents in the chest. She flew backwards hitting the ground roughly but was still up and fighting, leaping back into the fray with deadly force.

Two punches cracked in Faith's chest before the Slayer ignored the pain radiating out from the wounds choosing instead to grab her attackers' heads and bash them together violently. Both girls fell to the ground, knocked out cold as the brunette Slayer swung around with a left hook catching her third opponent in the chin. She crumpled as Faith whipped around in a spinning kick that struck her last attacker in the chest.

The girl flew backwards hitting the wall with a resounding smack.

"That was pretty good girls," Faith nodded at them with an easy smirk, "Gotta work on the speed a little but all in all you're all five by five."

The four young Slayers moaned in pain as they began to slowly recover from their brief spar with the older Slayer.

"Five by five?" Emma Morris staggered to her feet, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Faith shrugged lazily.

"Fine, great, fantastic, orgasmic," she grinned at their shocked faces, "Take your pick."

"Okay," Sari Evans grimaced, "Firstly, five by five is twenty-five and secondly… ew."

Faith shrugged again as the other two Slayers finally managed to get up.

"That hurt like a son of a bitch," Beth Viana moaned rubbing her head, "Jeez, June man you've got a thick head."

"You've got a thicker skull," June snapped angrily, "I'm still seeing Tweetie-birds."

"Girls," Faith cut through their bickering, "Chill. Both of you have got equally thick skulls."

Beth and June glared at her as Faith smirked back at them.

"All of you did great," Faith added, "You could've taken me down if you worked out a better plan first."

"Does the plan involve an Uzi or a grenade?" Sari muttered.

Faith laughed and told the girls to get cleaned up. The four Slayers dragged themselves up the stairs to the main building as Faith turned around, her dark eyes immediately darting towards the punching bag that dangled from one corner of the ceiling.

With a small smile on her face, the Slayer stalked towards the suspended bag as though it was a vampire, watching its swaying movements slowly.

Her concentration was broken as someone thundered down the stairs, feet slapping against the metal surface.

"Geez, mini-B," Faith drawled glancing at the intruder, "What's got you all worked up?"

Dawn Summers stared into Faith's eyes.

"They've found her."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Are you sure?" Xander looked around the room wildly, his single eye stopping briefly on everyone's face, "Are you absolutely, one hundred per cent, this-is-no-Candid-Camera-gag sure?"

"Yes, Xander," Giles said dryly, taking off his glasses, "When I told you I was sure, I was pretty sure I meant sure."

"How sure?"

Giles gave him his patented disapproving glare before turning to the occupants in the room. Dawn and Willow sat near him, the younger Summer's eyes wide with shock and excitement but Willow was much more calmer, only her sparkling emerald eyes betraying her joy.

Faith and Kennedy was also present, leaning against the wall as they silently observed the Scoobies' expressions.

"What do we do?" Xander demanded asking the question on everyone's mind.

"I don't know," Giles sighed cleaning his glasses slowly, "The situation is rather… complicated."

"Complicated?" Dawn yelped, "We get her home in one piece… how complicated is that?"

"Dawnie," Willow gently placed a hand on the teenager's shoulder, "If Buffy had wanted to come to us, she would've done it a long time ago."

"So what _do _we do?" Faith asked, speaking up, "I mean…"

The dark-haired Slayer paused.

"Do we want her here?"

"Of course we do!" Dawn and Xander yelled at the same time.

Kennedy snorted.

"It's not like we need her here. We're doing just fine without her," the younger Slayer muttered, "I mean she wasn't there for us so what right has she got to come back?"

Dawn glared at her.

"I distinctly remember Buffy helping us to get the scythe, which oh-so coincidentally helped us win the battle and activate all the Slayers," Dawn snapped, "Otherwise we would've all ended up being Ubervamp-chow."

Kennedy glared at her and opened her mouth to argue but Willow wisely intervened, shooting her ex-girlfriend a warning look.

"Okay guys," Willow warned, "Resolve face coming in. Resolve face says stopping arguing, resolve face says rational thinking coming in."

The infamous resolve face slammed into place, stopping any further arguments as Faith spoke up again.

"So what is B up to these days?"

Giles sighed.

"She's an assassin."

Everyone stared at him.

"WHAT?"

Giles shrugged helplessly.

"That's why my sources tell me, Buffy has become a supernatural assassin of sorts eliminating demons… for a price of course," Giles trailed off, "And very high prices, I suspect."

"She's slaying… for cash?" Faith whistled lowly, "Damn, B must've changed… she's turned smart."

Everyone stared at her.

"You know," Faith shrugged, "Just saying."

"She's getting paid millions?" Willow raised an eyebrow as Giles nodded gravely, "Jeez, Anya was right. She should've start charging a long time ago."

"Yeah, then she wouldn't have done that Doublemeat gig and end up meeting penis-lady," Dawn muttered, shuddering at the thoughts to those dark days when her diet consisted of Doublemeat Medley leftovers.

Everyone stared at her in her shock and surprise.

"What?" Dawn muttered glaring back at them, "That's how Willow described that Lamprey demon…"

Willow nodded.

"Yeah, it really did look like she had a giant long strangely brown pen…"

"I think we got the picture," Giles cut in hurriedly as Xander and the two Slayers present nodded eagerly, "Moving back to Buffy."

"I think we should try to see her face to face first," Xander suggested, "I mean, she's still Buffy isn't she? Maybe I can work some good old Harris charms and…"

"Make her run for the hills?" Faith muttered.

"Hey!"

"We can kidnap Dawn," Xander suggested, "I mean not actually kidnap her. You know pretend Dawn's in danger, Buffy would be sure to come running back."  
"I don't know whether to be insulted or complimented," Dawn whispered to Willow who smiled back.

"Buffy always was the big protective sis but no," Willow glanced at Xander, "We shouldn't trick her into coming back, she should want to."

"Okay, it's decided then," Faith said calmly, "We try to find B and meet her face to face."

Giles nodded.

"I think that is our best option," the older man admitted, "But there is one problem…"

"What is it?"

"We don't know where she is."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Where the hell are we going?" Ryan demanded.

Ying-fa shrugged.

"Bahamas sound good?"

"No, Ying I don't think we're going to the Bahamas," Indy added gently.

"Where are we going?" Ying-fa asked, "I mean we can't drive around in this stolen car forever."

Indy was in the drivers seat guiding their stolen van down along the dark streets as Ryan and Ying-fa sat shotgun, the witch uncomfortably perched on the man's lap as Ryan kept shooting her leering looks which Ying-fa ignored. Buffy, Horace and Tori was sitting in the row just behind them with poor Gil forced to squeeze in at the back.

"I don't know, I'm enjoying where I am right now," Ryan smirked as Ying-fa turned around to glare at him.

"You twisted perv," she snapped.

Ryan responded by jiggling his knees causing Ying-fa to bounce up and down as the witch let out a yelp of surprise. From behind him, Tori stretched out and smacked him across the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"Stop it!" Tori growled at him, shooting him a dangerous glare.

'"Jeez, touchy much?" Ryan muttered.

Tori's eyes blazed with rage.

"I'm pregnant," Tori growled, "And I've just been attacked by a vampire and his pack of moronic cronies, plus we've just got kicked out of own house and we're cruising the streets in a stolen car with a demon in the back so when we get pulled over my cops we'll probably end up riddled with bullets so excuse me if I'M A LITTLE HORMONAL!"

Silence filled the car.

"We could get a bigger car," Gil suggested from the back.

Indy snorted.

"What? The Ferrari Titanic?" she muttered, "Unless there's a tank lying around, this is as spacious as it's going to get."

"So where to?" Horace asked, forcing them back onto the matter at hand, "Where are we going?"

"Don't know," Indy glanced up at the rear view mirror, "Anyone got any ideas? Buffy?"

The blonde Slayer was looking at the window, her green eyes glazed over as she sat, lost in thought.

"Buffy!" Indy called.

The Slayer visibly jumped as she was wrenched back to reality.

"What?" she glanced around in confusion as everyone stared at her, "What? What's wrong?"

"We're just wondering where we should be going," Ying-fa explained to her, "What do you think? The Bahamas?"

"Stop it with the Bahamas!" Tori snapped.

"We can always go to one of our other safe houses," Gil suggested.

"Are you sure?" Indy frowned, "I've got this feeling those bastards know all about us… maybe they know about the safe houses as well."

Ying-fa snorted.

"I think they'll be too busy licking their wounds."

"Damn right," Ryan nodded, "Getting impaled by a sword takes some time to heal… even if you're a vamp."

"So agreed then?" Indy called out, "Secondary safe house?"

"Yeah!" everyone called out minus Buffy who was staring out the window again.

"Do she think she's alright?" Ryan asked whispering into Ying-fa's ears so only the witch can hear him.

The Asian woman glanced at the blonde Slayer and sighed softly.

"I don't know," she whispered back, "I don't think any of us knows what she's going through."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Buffy could tell her friends were talking about her but she ignored them, instead focusing on her own tumultuous thoughts.

Seeing Angel again…

It had been a shock to her system… which was as much an understatement as saying that she _disliked_ coming back from the dead all those years ago.

And forcing to fight him again?

Images from the past came into her mind. The silver blur of swords and blades clashing as Acathla stood beside them ready to open its stone jaw and suck up the world into hell flittered through her mind superimposing themselves over the fight just hours before.

Buffy shuddered before slowly realising that the van was slowing down, she looked up just in time to see that Indy was studying her through the rear-view mirror. Seeing her friend's concerned look, she forced a small smile trying to reassure the dark-skinned woman.

"Where are we?" she asked startling Ying-fa and Ryan who turned around to look at her worriedly.

Buffy frowned at them.

"And why is Ying-fa sitting on Ryan's lap?"

"She's giving me a lap dance Hooters-style," Ryan smirked broadly as Ying-fa glared at him.

Tori smacked him again as Ryan flinched.

"Ow! Stop that!" he shrieked as Tori hit him again.

Buffy felt a true smile flitter across her face as she watched her friends' crazy antics. Indy was now threatening to kick them all out of the car if they didn't behave, sounding for all the world like a frustrated soccer mom as Gil started sniggering from his place in the back of the van.

Ryan huffed and fell silent as Ying-fa shot him a final warning glare.

"So where are we?" Buffy asked repeating her question again.

"We're at one of our secondary safe houses," Indy explained, "We should rest up at least for tonight and then tomorrow we'll see what we should do. Okay?"

Everyone nodded in reply knowing full well not to argue with Indy once she got into her leadership mode.

"Great, now get out before we all get cabin fever and Ryan tries to stick Ying-fa," Indy told them undoing her seatbelt.

"He can try but I'll castrate him first," Ying-fa muttered venomously hopping off the man's lap and getting out of the car in one swift movement.

"Sorry Ying but you don't have a chainsaw on you," Ryan shot back cockily as everyone rolled their eyes.

"Oh?" Ying-fa batted her eyelids at him, "I was thinking more along the lines of you know… a nail clipper!"

"Are you trying to make some innuendo about the size of my p…" Ryan began, a fierce look on his face.

Ying-fa snorted.

"Duh, of course I'm making a small… actually _very_ small innuendo about your size," Ying-fa smirked, "Of course being the brain-dead moron you are, you couldn't pick it up."

She shot Ryan a final spiteful look before turning around and facing the dilapidated building straight in front of her. It appeared to be abandoned, broken windows revealing the dark unlit rooms within. The outside façade was falling apart, broken bricks littering the filthy pavement underfoot.

"Reveal," Ying-fa murmured making a clockwise motion with her left hand.

The glamour faded away revealing a sheer wall of unbroken bricks and whole windows.

"Coming?" the witch asked turning to glance at her friends, "It's cold out here."

"Hey, Tori need help? Or are you so knocked up you can't even fit through the door?" Ryan teased trying to lighten the situation.

Shooting him a dirty look, Tori extracted herself from the car and practically shoved past Ying-fa knocking the witch aside. Yanking the door open she briskly walked into the safehouse slamming the door behind her as everyone stared after her.

"Was it something I said?" Ryan wondered aloud.

This time it was Gil, Horace, Buffy and Indy who slapped him across the back of the head as Ying-fa looked on, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Ow!"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Ow…" Gunn rubbed the back of his head gently, wincing in pain as his fingers brushed up against the bruise there, "Damn that demon was strong."

"They kicked our ass," Lindsey said quietly from his position near the window, "Damn, we didn't stand a chance."

Gunn looked up and saw was Lindsey was looking at. Through the glass he could see the flurried movements of doctors and nurses as they tried to patch the rest of their team together. Illyria was the most injured with multiple gun shot wounds followed by the two vampires, Angel and Harmony but with their super-healing the sword wound through their chest wasn't that worrying. And finally Wesley brought up the rear, having only suffered a few bruises, a cracked rib and a nasty concussion.

"Who were they?" Gunn asked wincing as he shifted slightly trying to make himself comfortable in the hard plastic chair.

The medical ward of Wolfram and Hart was practically a carbon copy of a top-rate hospital right down to the uncomfortable, sterile waiting room.

"Her new friends, I guess," Lindsey said quietly.

The door leading into the waiting room swung open as a blood-splattered doctor walked in.

"We managed to extract the bullets out of Illyria," the man announced as the two lawyers turned around to regard him, "I believe you wanted them for future studies?"

Lindsey nodded as the doctor walked over to him handing him a small plastic packet filled with bloodstained bullets. Lindsey studied the tiny twisted pieces of metal before nodding at the doctor, effectively dismissing him as he tucked the packet into his pocket. The doctor left them as Gunn frowned in confusion.

"Future studies?"

"We want to see how that witch made these bullets able to hit Illyria."

Gunn nodded as Lindsey sighed and turned back to the window, his mind drifting back to the battle and the events preceding it.

He hoped the Slayer's Council had taken his phone call seriously. They needed to know that Buffy Summers had resurfaced again. Having read through her unbelievably thick file, which listed victories after countless victories against the forces of darkness, Lindsey had the feeling they were possibly the only people who were equipped to deal with her.

Sighing gently, he moved to sit down but was stopped as his phone began ringing. Frowning in confusion, he pulled it out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

"Hello?"

_'Mr. McDonald?'_ the smooth, refined voice of a company secretary filtered through the phone.

"Yes?"

_'There's a woman here to see you.'_

Lindsey frowned in confusion.

"Who?"

_'She says her name is Willow Rosenberg.'_

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Willow looked around the foyer of Wolfram and Hart as the receptionist began talking into her phone. It had taken quite a bit of energy for her to magically teleport herself all the way from Cleveland to Los Angeles but this was an emergency. The receptionist hung up her phone and pasted a polite smile on her face as she looked up into the witch's face.

"Mr. McDonald will be right with you."

Willow nodded as she felt the spells that protected Wolfram and Hart converge on her, she felt detection and sight spells study every inch of her skin causing her to shudder. With a small frown and a whispered word, she deflected the spells forcing them away from her as she continued to wait.

It didn't take long.

A handsome young man appeared through one of the many doors leading into the main foyer as Willow turned to regard him, reminding herself not to give the man away.

A polite smile graced her lips as she moved forwards feeling the receptionist's eyes drilling into her back.

"Mr. McDonald?" Willow asked quietly.

Lindsey nodded.

"Ms. Rosenberg, who nice to meet you," the man said gently.

They smiled politely at each other, their lie faces on. Thank god, Willow had gotten better at lying over the years otherwise both of them would've been in major trouble by now.

As they continued to make polite conversation, Willow summoned her magic around her forming an invisible barrier around them. The spells protecting the building slid off the magical wards like rainwater off glass, giving them precious privacy.

"Mr. McDonald," Willow began again as she opened up her mind.

An invisible tendril of power freed itself from her mind shooting across the short distance between them and wrapping itself around Lindsey's.

_'Lindsey… is it true?' _she asked telepathically.

"I believe this is your first time here?" Lindsey asked aloud even as his mind began to answer her.

_'Yes… Angel managed to track down Buffy.'_

_'What happened?'_

"Yes, this is quite an impressive building you got here," Willow told him as their continued to silently communicate.

_'She has some new friends… and they kicked our ass… bad.'_

"Well, we're under new management so the decors changed a bit."

_'Is everyone okay?'_

_'We'll live,' _Lindsey told her telepathically.

_'Do you know where she is now?'_

_'No.'_

Willow inwardly sighed even as she continued to hold a verbal conversation with him.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you're wondering why I came," Willow shot him a small grin, "I really need to speak with Angel… I believe his the new management here."

_'But I got something that could help you.'_

_'What is it?'_

_'One of Buffy's new friends is a powerful witch… really powerful. She mojo-ed some bullets so they could Illyria, I've got them with me… maybe you can work some spells on them track down the witch. It's what we did to find her in the first place.'_

Willow gave the slightest of nods.

_'Okay. Give them to me.'_

"I'm sorry but Angel is unable to see you right now."

The red-haired witch sighed nosily in frustration.

"Oh, that's too bad," she pouted, "When can I talk to him?"

Lindsey shrugged helplessly.

"Sorry, don't know but I'll have someone contact you when he's available."

Willow nodded as Lindsey held out his hand.

"It was nice meeting you," he said politely secretly concealing the packet of bullets in his palm.

As Willow clutched his hand, he passed the bullets to her before stepping away.

"Thank you," Willow said calmly dismantling the communication spell between them and the wards that protected them from Wolfram and Hart's enchantments.

Willow walked away as Lindsey stared after her.

"Good luck," he whispered, "You'll need it."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"This is a stupid idea."

"You think?" Ying-fa muttered, "Why do I let you people drag me into this?"

"You love us?" Ryan asked.

"Get bent."

Indy shuddered.

"This is going to get ugly… I mean really ugly."

"We're going to get soooo scarred," Ying-fa sighed, "Mentally traumatised… for life."

Indy whimpered.

"Can we not do this? I mean really not?"

Ying-fa snorted.

"You could've gotten out of this but noooo… 'it'll be fun!' you said… ha! Where's that fun loving spirit now?"

Buffy sighed in frustration.

"If you guys don't want to do it then don't!"

"Coward," Ryan muttered.

"Pervert," the blonde Slayer shot back.

"Ryan talked us into this…" Indy muttered, "Damn us and our competitive spirit."

"So? Are we ready or not?" Ryan grinned at them, "Cause I'm itching to get started!"

"Fine," Ying-fa groaned, "Deal."

"Alright! And let's begin a rousing game of Strip Poker!"

Indy and Ying-fa glanced at each other.

"We're very, very stupid," Indy groaned.

"Yes, you are," Buffy observed.

"How come you're not playing?" Ying-fa demanded.

Buffy frowned pretending to think.

"Hmm… I wonder… oh wait!" she clicked her fingers, "That's it! Because I'm not a dumb-ass."

Indy sighed.

"Let's get this over and done with," she muttered, "Damn this stupid safehouse having no T.V. and/or musical device."

Ryan sniggered.

"Oh, I'm sure this will keep us entertained," he taunted as he began dealing out the hands.

Buffy watched on as the three players glanced at their cards. Ryan was smirking wildly whilst Ying-fa seemed incredibly annoyed. Indy's face was unreadable as she glanced at her fellow players.

"Hit me."

Horace and Tori had gone to bed hours ago, Gil had disappeared out the door a while back telling them that he was going out to 'snoop'. Buffy wondered idly what the purple demon had actually meant but she pushed it out of her mind as she watched Indy win the first hand of poker.

"Come on, Pervo-boy," she smirked, "Strip."

"Do you want me to take my pants off?" Ryan shot back.

Ying-fa and Indy shuddered.

"Hello no," the witch muttered.

Buffy sniggered as Ryan took off his shoe instead.

This was going to get interesting.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Interesting," Giles looked at the handful of twisted bullets, "These managed to hit and hurt Illyria?"

Willow nodded distractedly as she held up one of the bullets and peered at it, examining the metal from all directions.

"Lindsey was right… there's some powerful magic on these…" she murmured softly.

"Can you track the source down?" Giles asked.

Willow shrugged.

"I haven't really done this kind of stuff… I mean location spells I'm your girl but tracking down pure magic? I'm not so much your girl… more like the not girl… but hey! Powerful witch… so I should be okay… right?"

Giles nodded sagely.

"I think you'll do fine."

Willow nodded and took a deep breath.

"But this is something new to me… I have to kind of merge with the magic… and fiddling around with other people's power… especially someone this powerful? You may see Wicked Witch of the West Willow…"

"Or you may become a Cher-look-alike again," Faith said from her position in the corner of the room, "You can do it, Red."

Kennedy nodded in agreement as Willow shot them a nervous smile.

"Don't worry, me and Giles will ground you," Dawn said perkily.

Giles shot her an annoyed glare as Dawn wilted.

"Giles will keep you grounded and I'll observed and make with the non-grounding," the younger Summers pouted as Xander sat beside her, silent as his dark eyes studied his friend's face.

Willow smiled tightly at Xander before gesturing towards one of the bullets. It instantly flew up into the air until it was at eye-level with the witch.

"Here goes," she sighed reaching out to take the bullet.

The redhead gently wrapped her fingers around the cool metal surface and closed her eyes.

"Reveal!" she whispered, magic rolling through her voice.

As the others watched on, Willow seemed to be struggling with the bullet as purple and blue light swirled around her in an ecstatic kaleidoscope. Strands of red hair began turning pure white as the air hummed with power. Everyone gasped as Willow's eyes suddenly snapped open. Gone were the usual emerald green, her irises were pure darkness, a stark contrast to the angelic aura that tinged her hair.

"REVEAL!" she cried again.

To Dawn it seemed two voices had spoken at once, one guttural and low, the other heavenly and divine. Gold light blazed through the gaps between her clutched fingers as Willow began shaking violently.

"Will!" Xander moved to grab his friend but Giles shoved him back into his seat.

"Don't," he commanded quietly as Willow continued to tremble.

Her black eyes blinking uncontrollably as her hair flashed from red to white with alarming speed. Everyone jumped as Willow's head snapped backwards and her jaws burst open, a blast of crimson light shot out and struck the ceiling burning a massive hole in the plaster.

"Red!" Faith charged at the witch but Willow had other ideas.

She blasted the Slayer back with another blast of crimson magic before raising her fist and throwing the bullet clutched in it forwards in a burst of gold light. Everyone hit the ground as the bullet slammed into the wall, driving itself into the wood.

"Willow?" Dawn yelled frantically as she slowly crawled to her feet, "Willow! Focus! Ground yourself!"

For a few seconds, Willow struggled with herself blinking furiously, trying to clear her system from the magic that roared through them. Finally the black bleed away from her eyes as her white hair turned itself back into its customary red.

'Whoa," she gasped slowly sitting down as her legs turned to jelly, "Oh goddess."

"Okay, what happened?" Kennedy asked helping Faith up off the ground, "What happened?"

Giles shrugged helplessly as he studied Willow carefully.

"Willow?"

"It was hard," she managed to gasp, "The magic… it was powerful… it corrupted me but it worked…"

She looked up at them.

"I know where she is."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"This sucks," Ryan muttered.

"Awww… lil Ryan baby boy doesn't like losing?" Ying-fa smirked.

Ryan growled at her and took off his shirt. Buffy shook her head as she glanced at her three friends. Ryan was now down to his boxers as Ying-fa and Indy sat across from her, Indy minus one shoe whilst Ying-fa was still completely clothed.

"You cheat."

Indy rolled her eyes.

"What are you six? You're losing… get over it!"

Ryan huffed as he dealt out another hand. Indy began to laugh as she saw her hand.

"You may as well take over those boxers now," she smirked, "Three aces baby! So unless you've got a royal flush or something…"

"AHH!" Ryan threw down his cards, "This sucks."

"And I'm going to leave before Ryan starts wearing his birthday suit," Buffy said hurriedly as she began getting up.

"Where are you going?" Indy asked, a worried look on her face.

"Oh… around," Buffy said vaguely, "Stake a couple of vamps… you know same old, same old."

"Do you want company?" Ying-fa asked starting to get up.

"Nah," Buffy shook her head, "Stay, gloat over your victory. Mock Ryan, I'll be fine."

"Sure?"

"Sure."

Buffy made sure she had a few stakes tucked into her jacket pocket as she made her way to the front door.

"Oh, and Ying was cheating," she tossed behind her shoulder as she opened the door.

"WHAT?" Ryan squawked as Ying-fa began laughing loudly.

Buffy smirked to herself as she stepped out into the cool night air, closing the door behind her effectively cutting off Ryan's indignant tirade as his two friends continued to laugh at him.

Smiling to herself, Buffy glanced at the dark streets internally debating with herself which route she should take. Mentally shrugging, she randomly chose one and began following it out into the city.

Darkness soon concealed her slight form as the Slayer went patrolling.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Hey!"

Rebecca turned around and smiled as she saw Beth run up to her.

"Hey, Beth… how was training?"

The young Slayer smiled ruefully as she held up her arm allowing Rebecca to see the ugly bruise forming there.

"Faith stomped me, June, Sari and Em into the ground," Beth explained as Rebecca laughed.

"Sorry, I missed the fun."

The two girls began heading towards their shared dorm room as they continued to chat.

"How was patrolling?"

"Dandy," Rebecca pulled a face, "A wannabe rapist tried to hit on me."

"And?"

"I hit him back.

"Hard?"

"You bet."

"Nice."

"If I was you I would've snapped his neck," a new voice said from behind them.

Both Slayers turned around.

"June," Beth sighed, "Not everyone is as sadistic as you."

June laughed.

"Rapist? No-one would miss him."

"We don't go around killing people," Rebecca reminded her.

June's face hardened.

"Rapists aren't people."

"Person experience, much?" Beth muttered raising an eyebrow.

June shrugged.

"All I'm saying, people like that… they don't deserve to live."

"Oh please so that in front of Faith or Giles," Beth begged, "I wanna see their faces."

The auburn-haired Slayer rolled her eyes.

"As if, both of them have major stick-up-their-ass complexes," June muttered.

Beth and Rebecca exchanged glances. All out of the Junior Slayers, June Mayer was perhaps the most troublesome. A spitfire, trouble-maker and rebel but one hell of a fighter, she had a tendency to be over-violent so it was no surprise that Kennedy had personally taken the younger girl under her wing training her until she could match some of the older Slayers in one-on-one battles.

"Whatever," Beth muttered rolling her eyes.

Two more girls joined them.

"Beth, Rebecca," one of them nodded briskly at both Slayers before turning to June, "Hey June!"

The two Slayers rolled their eyes as they studied Lucy and Maria, June's best friends or cronies depending on who you were talking to.

"I watched your sparring section!" Lucy cried, babbling enthusiastically, "That one-two combo punch you pulled was soooo cool! You are so good, June!"

"Gag me," Rebecca muttered as Maria remained silent.

The dark-haired Slayer, compared to her two friends was much more sedate and calmer. Speaking only when spoken to but mostly she just sat out of conversations studying everyone with her dark-brown eyes.

"Hey!" a sixth voice broke into Lucy's tirade as everyone turned to look at the source of the voice.

Sari Evans grinned as everyone looked at her questioningly, Lucy with an annoyed look on her face.

"Slayer meeting."

"About what?" Beth asked, confused, "Is the world ending… again?"

Sari shrugged.

"Seems important so let's make with the meeting before Faith stomps our ass into the ground."

"Okay," Rebecca shrugged and began heading off towards the main meeting room of Slayers HQ as the other Slayers fell in behind her.

Lucy continued to prattle on loudly to June as the others suffered in silence, forced to listen to her pointless and never-ending diatribe. Beth however was still frowning.

"What's wrong?" Rebecca asked, a concerned look on her face.

Beth shrugged.

"Don't know… puzzled I guess… I wonder what's going on?"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"What's going on?" Rona asked with a frown, looking straight at her fellow Slayer.

Kennedy shrugged.

"Chill, Rona. You'll find out soon," the Slayer said grimly.

Rona shrugged as she took a seat beside Vi, who had a confused look on her face.

"Is the world ending?"

Kennedy laughed.

"I wish," she muttered rolling her eyes, "Let's just say we've got a blast from the past."

Before Vi or Rona could ask another question, the door to the meeting room popped out and a stream of Junior Slayers flooded into the room.

"Whoa," Sari murmured seeing who was already in there, "This is big."

"Wha?" Rebecca asked confused.

"Look Vi, Rona and Kennedy. Three SDVs? This is big."

"SDVs?" Beth was confused.

"Sunnydale Veterans."

"Veterans?" June muttered, "What? They went to 'Nam?"

Sari glared at the redhead before taking her seta as Rebecca and Beth sat next to her. Emma Morris and Nora Kebec soon joined them as Giles walked into the room flanked by Dawn, Willow and Xander with Andrew Wells trailing behind them.

"Hey, Dawn!" Sari called waving to her friend.

Dawn smiled back at them before turning serious again as Faith entered the room behind Andrew.

"Okay! Girls!" she called, her voice slicing through the din like a razor blade, "Quiet!"

A hush fell over the room as Giles took centre stage.

"We've just received some news…" he began.

Everyone hid smiles as he took off his glasses and began cleaning them slowly, trying to group his thoughts together.

"We've just received some news… about Buffy."

Vi and Rona's eyes widened in shock as the Junior Slayers stared at each other.

"Buffy?" Emma whispered to Rebecca, "Who?"

"Slayer before Faith… she was a God in slaying," Rebecca murmured back, "But a couple of years ago… she disappeared… I don't know why… the story gets kinda vague bu…"

Faith shot them a warning glare as the two Slayers gulped and hurriedly fell silent.

"We know where she is right now and we've decided," Giles sighed, "We've decided to try and talk to her."

"Why?" Rona demanded suddenly, "Why should we? It's not like we owe her anything."

Silently Faith held up something in her hands. Every Junior Slayer gasped as they realises what the crimson object resting in the older Slayer's hands was.

"The scythe," June whispered reverently staring at the perfectly crafted weapon, "Oh god… it's beautiful."

Rona fell silent as Faith held up the scythe for all to see.

"Buffy gave us this… and because of her we won the war against the First," Faith sighed, "And I just want you to know that I'm not trying to defend her. Just stating facts. I think we should try to contact her, B's a hell of a fighter. She's someone you definitely want on your side and if we could get her to come back it'll boost our ranks."

And with that she lowered the scythe and fell silent as Willow took the stage trying not to appear nervous as she felt everyone's eyes drill into hers.

"I know where she is… I also know why we couldn't find her for years. She has a protection spell on her that deflects locating charms but thanks to a recent spell I did it's no longer effective against me," Willow took a deep breath, "We're going to try and contact Buffy tonight. But it's not that simple, she has some new friends… dangerous ones. Angel in L.A. tried to go after her and he and his team got chewed on and spat out… so we need volunteers… you girls… we need your help."

"So what exactly are we supposed to do?" Sari asked sticking up her hands.

"Easy, Sari," Kennedy growled, "If anyone gets in our way we thrash them."

"Oh."

"So any volunteers?" Faith asked speaking up.

Every single Slayer stuck up their hands as Faith and Kennedy glanced at each other.

"Vi, Rona," Faith called, "You're in. June, Rebecca, Emma, Beth, Sari, Nora… you're all in."

"Oh yeah!" Beth and Sari high-fived each other as the other Slayers slumped into their seats glumly.

"What!" Lucy wailed, "No fair!"

Even Emma; quiet, sweet, gentle Emma had to roll her eyes at Lucy's melodramatics.

"Arm up girls," Kennedy commanded, "We're going in."

"Where are we going? And how?" June demanded.

Willow shot her a small smile.

"Welcome to Willow Witchy Greyhounds, please keep limbs within vehicle at all times."

"Ahh… Willow from witch to mass transport," Xander mused, "Of course not in a sexual, skanky sort of way."

Everyone laughed as Giles sighed took off his glasses and began cleaning them again slowly.

This was going to be a long night.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Buffy whistled a jaunty tune as she strolled through the dark and dirty streets, her senses on high alert.

"Vampires…" she called out in a singsong voice, "Come out, come out wherever you are."

No answer.

"Ummm… I've got a bag of blood candy I'm willing to share?" she tried.

Still no answer.

"Fine," Buffy huffed, "Have it your way."

She rounded the corner and came to a screeching halt as she studied the scene in front of her. A group of demons stood over something lying on the ground as their bright red eyes glared through the darkness, their fang-lined maws wide open as a strange screeching noise erupted from their throats.

"I wish for vampires and I get demons…" Buffy sighed, "Is there a vengeance demon around?"

She ran up to the pack of demons.

"Hey! Uglies!"

They whirled around revealing long dangerous talons as Buffy paused.

"Fanged, clawed and dangerous uglies?" she tried again weakly.

She glanced at the dark object they were standing over and her eyes hardened as she recognised the similar sight of blood pooling on the cold, hard pavement.

"Bastards," she muttered.

She leapt right at them, ripping a stake free from her jacket as she lashed out at the first demon.

Wood slammed into teeth breaking them on impact as Buffy swung again. The demons roared and charged at her as Buffy went into full slaying mode, a cocktail of adrenaline, instincts and experience driving her every move as she punched, kicked and fought moving too fast for conscious thought to keep up.

She slammed the stake into one of the demon's eyes as it fell away screaming in pain. Without a pause she whirled around, foot shooting out as it struck one of the demon's knees. An audible crunch filled the air as cartilage popped. The black demon collapsed screeching in pain as it roared around on the filthy concrete.

One demon slashed out at her as Buffy ducked before embedding her stake into the demon's gut. It stumbled backwards thrashing around wildly in its death throes as Buffy pulled up another stake and picked her next opponent.

Two demons double-teamed her body slamming the Slayer away as pinpoints of red blazed through the darkness multiplying with each second.

Reinforcements were coming.

Buffy growled in frustration as she backhanded one demon before throwing herself into a horizontal twirl double-kicking another demon in the face. Bodies began piling up around her as cuts began gathering on her arms and chest. Fending away another taloned swipe with her stake, she kicked the demon in the cut before uppercutting it in the face.

It flipped over backwards as Buffy back-kicked it in the throat, using the heel of her shoes to crush its windpipe. It died nosily as more demons appeared to take its place.

The blonde Slayer looked around desperately, hoping to see an avenue of escape or a more effective weapon but her luck ran out as demons raced through the darkness to block her back. Cursing inwardly, she fought on crushing demons with punishing blows as the ring of monsters tightened around her.

"Damn," she leapt onto one of the fallen bodies and used it as a springboard to flip over several demons.

Kicking one in the back, she sent if flying towards her companions knocking several of them over. In the chaos, Buffy made her break.

She raced into an alley easily scaling a rickety fence that tried to feebly block out intruders. She raced on through the darkness as she heard the demons give chase.

Rounding a corner, she cursed loudly as she realised it was dead end. She whirled around to run back but the demons were already there.

They charged at her as Buffy back-flipped onto a nearby dumpster. With the extra height, she was able to fend them off with less difficulty than before.

With deadly speed and accuracy, her legs lashed out catching each demon in the face or throat as they tried to reach her.

Two demons leapt at her as Buffy fought to keep them at bay, with a victorious roar they slammed into her, tackling her against the wall.

Buffy could feel the unstable masonry give way as their combined weight slammed down onto it.

"Oh man," she whispered as the wall collapsed inwards.

Bricks and debris rained down on them as they sailed through the wall and into darkness.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Sari felt the world stopped spinning as she fought the urge to throw up.

"Whoa… who needs Disneyland when you got that ride?" Beth muttered as she stumbled around unsteadily.

"Where is she?" Faith asked getting straight down to business.

Willow concentrated as Dawn and Xander watched on worriedly. Suddenly her eyes snapped open.

"There!" she yelled pointing at some dark alleyway.

The Slayers and the Scoobies ran off in the indicated direction as Faith hefted up the scythe ready for anything.

However she was not expecting a veritable army of demons to be blocking their way.

"Shit," she growled as they charged at them, "Partner up! Like we practiced! I want everyone to partner up! Red! Try to thin the crowd!"

Willow nodded as she held out her hands and concentrated, whispering a spell beneath her breath.

A tongue of green flames lashed out and incinerated several of the charging demons as the Slayers prepared themselves. The spell died down as the horde of demons still remaining pushed through the lingering flames with savage roars.

Dawn raised her crossbow and fired it expertly, the bolt slamming into a demon's throat taking it down as the Slayers leapt into the battle.

Emma and Rebecca fought side by side as both of them wielded their swords expertly slicing demons left, right and centre. To their right Vi and Rona fought, Vi armed with the dagger that had served her well in the final battle of Sunnydale as Rona unleashed her fury with the help of a battleaxe.

June and Kennedy were together, both Slayers favouring hand to hand combat punctuated with the odd stake thrust.

Beth, Sari and Nora held their own as they fought with Dawn and Xander, the two non-Slayers firing off arrows with their crossbows as the Slayers went into close combat with stakes and swords.

"Red!" Faith yelled as she whipped the scythe around decapitating a demon neatly, "Something tells me B is somewhere in this crowd!"

Willow nodded knowing what the dark-haired Slayer was getting at. She unleashed another blast of magic as an invisible force shoved the demons aside. Faith took the opportunity to dash for it as the demons closed in again, she ran as she fought, the scythe a constant blur of silver and red as she sliced through limbs and chests alike.

Leaping over the last few demons, Faith's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the gaping hole punched into one of the walls.

"Like bloody Alice in Wonderland," Faith muttered as she took off at a dead sprint.

She leapt from the opening and landed into a fray.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Buffy was down but she was far from out. Fending off the demons, she lashed out with all four limbs throwing them off her. They literally exploded away from her as she flipped back onto her feet.

Her stake flew from her hands striking one demon in the throat as she nailed another demon with a vicious haymaker. A quick side step avoided a wild clawed swipe as she punched the demon in the face.

It flipped backwards as Buffy whirled around to face her next opponent. It charged at her screaming and roaring in rage as Buffy prepared to meet it face on.

Suddenly the demon froze, red eyes widening in shock and glazed over in pain as it clutched at its chest. Buffy's eyes trailed down the demon's body until she realised there was a wooden stake sticking out from the leathery skin, her eyes widened in shock as the stake retracted itself allowing to lifeless body to fall onto the ground with a gentle thump.

She looked up at the demon's killer.

"Hello B," Faith drawled casually staking another demon with the wooden end of the scythe.

Buffy cocked her head to one side, hostility burning in her eyes.

"Hello Faith."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

CLIFFHANGER!

A/Notes:

This is my first BTVS fic so it's pretty hard for me to write each character so that they stay true to the show… how did I go? Please, please tell me if you have any troubles with my characterizations I'll try and improve it.

How did you like the Junior Slayers? Please tell me if they actually work! And thank you to everyone who review and said they love my own characters! That means so much to me! Thank you!


	5. Death of a Slayer

OMG! My quickest update yet! Hope you enjoy it! And please, please R + R!

Disclaimer: What's mine is mine, what's Joss's is Joss's

**Emptiness Within**

**Chapter 5: Death of a Slayer**

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer… 

Buffy was down but she was far from out. Fending off the demons, she lashed out with all four limbs throwing them off her. They literally exploded away from her as she flipped back onto her feet.

Her stake flew from her hands striking one demon in the throat as she nailed another demon with a vicious haymaker. A quick side step avoided a wild clawed swipe as she punched the demon in the face.

It flipped backwards as Buffy whirled around to face her next opponent. It charged at her screaming and roaring in rage as Buffy prepared to meet it face on.

Suddenly the demon froze, red eyes widening in shock and glazed over in pain as it clutched at its chest. Buffy's eyes trailed down the demon's body until she realised there was a wooden stake sticking out from the leathery skin, her eyes widened in shock as the stake retracted itself allowing to lifeless body to fall onto the ground with a gentle thump.

She looked up at the demon's killer.

"Hello B," Faith drawled casually staking another demon with the wooden end of the scythe.

Buffy cocked her head to one side, hostility burning in her eyes.

"Hello Faith."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Hey B," Faith casually whipped the scythe around cutting down another demon, "How's life been lately?"

"Meh," Buffy shrugged, "Can't complain."

She pulled another stake out from her jacket and stabbed another demon viciously through the heart. More monsters poured in through the hole in the wall as the two Slayers continued fighting.

"See you got my gift," Buffy called nodding at the scythe as Faith continued to wield it with dangerous efficiency.

"Seems like," Faith agreed as she mowed down every demon that came towards with its razor sharp edge, "I like black better, though."

Buffy shrugged before ducking hurriedly as a demon sailed past overhead.

"Sorry, the First only had it in one colour," she explained as she jumped back up before spin kicking one of the demons in the chest.

She followed up with a vicious roundhouse punch before staking it in the eye. Black liquid gushed out from the wound as Buffy grimaced in disgust, pushing the screaming demon away. She whirled around and kicked another demon away.

"What brings you here, Faith?" Buffy asked, shouting over the din of battle as the two Slayers continued to fight against the incoming horde.

"To see you actually," Faith said casually swinging the scythe around again.

Metal bit into the demon's chest as Faith kicked its body away. Twirling the scythe around in her hand expertly, Faith punched another demon in the nose before slicing it neatly in half. The two sides of the body fell to the ground with a wet squelch as Buffy half-turned to regard her fellow Slayer.

"How did you find me?"

"Red."

Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, she must be powerful," she muttered distractedly as she punched another demon away.

"She turned blonde after the Slayer activation mojo," Faith said casually as though that meant something.

Buffy was surprised.

"Permanently?"

"Nah, she's red again."

Buffy threw a one-two combo punch at one of the demons hitting it in the chest and face before grabbing its hard and twisting it around viciously. A loud crack filled the air as Buffy hurled the lifeless corpse at another demon. They both went down as Faith continued to slice through the demons with her scythe.

"Oh, by the way nice job at Sunnydale," Buffy told her casually as if she was merely discussing the weather, "Closing the Hellmouth? Nice."

"You should've been there."

Buffy laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, should've been."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Vi slit one of the demon's throats opened pushing the twitching body away as Rona ruthlessly hacked another demon apart.

"Jeez, what's with the numbers?" the dark-skinned Slayer demanded, "They're like freaking bunnies!"

"More like Demonic Bunnies from the Black Lagoon," Emma amended as she appeared by her side throwing demons left and right with powerful punches, "Minus the cheap special effects."

"The effects were lame," Rona agreed as she cut another demon open, "But horror movies are so overrated… I mean what's with the black chick always dies first clause?"

"I think Scary Movie pointed it out enough for us," Beth muttered as she joined the duo in beating the demon's back.

An arrow whistled through the air embedding itself into a demon's throat with deadly accuracy, it fell to the ground choking and clawing at its throat desperately as Dawn smiled victoriously before fitting another bolt into her crossbow and aiming again.

"Check out Robin Hood," Xander admired as Dawn fired again.

"More like Keira Knightly," Dawn retorted as she reloaded.

"Nah, King Arthur was overrated," Sari muttered as she slashed at a demon with her sword.

The force of the blow spun the demon around as metal sliced through flesh.

"But Lancelot…" Dawn mused as she fired again.

"Yum," Sari winked at the teenager as she casually slashed at another demon.

"Yummo," Dawn agreed taking out another demon as Xander fired his arrow as well.

"Umm… girls. Battle here?" the ever-sensible Nora reminded them as she fought against three demons that tried to overwhelm her with their numbers.

One instantly exploded into flames as Willow directed her attention onto the besieged Slayer. Nora took out another demon with a vicious backhand as Xander dispatched the third with a well-placed arrow.

Kennedy and June were in their element as they fought back to back. They were just fighting… they were practically dancing.

Each of their movements was fluid and deadly, striking with devastating force. Demons fell away from them as they punched and kicked with brutal strength, they were a flurry of movement dodging and attacking at the same time. The demons no matter how many times they tried to overwhelm them with numbers were simply no match.

Everyone watched as Kennedy's hand suddenly shot out and grabbed one of the demon's throats. With a vicious squeeze, she crushed its windpipe, its red eyes dulling as it died. Kennedy threw its body aside as she waded back into the fight.

June was equally as brutal preferring to beat her opponents to death rather than use her stake. She blocked one demon's swipes before grabbing its arm and breaking it with a violent twist. Her foot lashed out destroying its knees caps as it fell to the ground.

She finished it off with a vicious backhand. June smiled in satisfaction as the force of the blow spun the demon's head around in a full 360-degree turn, neck snapping in the process.

The corpse fell backwards as the Junior Slayer moved onto her next victim.

The demonic body count continued to skyrocket as the Slayers fought on.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Yeah, should've been."

Faith turned to glance at her.

"Why weren't you there?"

"Jeez," Buffy drawled, "I wonder."

"You know you've came back."

"Somehow I sincerely doubt that," Buffy said dryly as she staked another demon.

"That night?" Faith told her cocking an eyebrow, "Tensions were running high. People said things they didn't mean…"

Buffy laughed again as she punched another demon away.

"Didn't mean?" she repeated incredulously, "Oh, I'm pretty sure you all meant what you said."

"Jeez, B we were in the middle of a losing war and just came off a heavy loss… so sorry if some people got a bit you know… honest with their feelings," Faith snapped as she sliced through another demon.

The amount of demons pouring through the hole in the wall was definitely slowing by now. The two Slayers fought in silence for a while, each woman focusing on the enemy as they punched, kicked, sliced and stabbed their way through the remaining few. The scythe's blade hummed through the air, slicing through a demon's chest with surgical precision and neatness. Faith kicked the staggering demon away before flipping the scythe expertly in her hands, stabbing a demon behind her with the wooden point that adorned its end.

Buffy was in her element unleashing punishing blows that snapped necks and crushed limbs. Demons fell away around her, screeching in pain as Buffy continued to dish out punishment focusing all of her fury and confusion into the battle. Killing blows came hard and fast. Gritting her teeth, she ripped her way through a demon's chest with her stake, jagged wood point tearing muscles and skin as she literally ripped the heart out of the demon.

Throwing the pulsating mass behind her, Buffy shoved the corpse away before she whirled around looking for another victim.

There was none.

"There was a fun fight and a half wasn't it?" Faith muttered as she ripped the scythe free from a twitching body.

Buffy ignored her as she turned around and faced the wall, her back against the other Slayer.

"Thanks for the help," Buffy said casually as she took a step towards the wall "See you around sometime."

She grabbed the edge of the hole as Faith narrowed her eyes at her back.

"What, are you leaving now? Just like last time B?"

"Oh, the let's-piss-off-Buffy-so-she'll-have-an-emotional-epiphany-and-coming-running-back-to-the-fold ploy? Nice, Faith, really smart. Right up there with let's-lead-the-helpless-Potentials-down-into-Ubervamp-town," Buffy shot back, tossing the verbal barb behind her shoulder without turning around.

Faith glared at her. Without a pause, she hurled the scythe forwards in a spinning blur of silver and crimson. Buffy blinked as it slammed into the wall, sharp edge embedding itself into the brickwork right beside her head.

She cocked her head to the left studying the gleaming scythe.

"Jeez, Faith throwing your only weapon at the enemy and missing? There's even more stupid than your other plan."

"Screw you, B," Faith snarled.

"Love you too, F."

"The almighty, all-conquering Buffy," Faith spat, "Ditches her family and friends after a little spat. What's wrong, can't handle a little criticism?"

Buffy turned around, a bored look on her face.

"Maybe you miss the part when I told you pissing me off is not going to help but…" Buffy shrugged, "Here it is again… it's not going to help."

"When did you become a frigid ice bitch?"

"Hmmm… right around the time when everyone I knew ditched me, if my memory serves me right."

"Some lil' Slayer wannabes blow some steam and you run off? Look around! No one ditched you. We're all here to get you back. Red, your sis, Xander… we're all here."

"What plane of existence were you on that night?" Buffy demanded, "After all we went through, one mistake and I was out of there? The only reason you're all here is because you're all feeling guilty. So you're not here because of me. You're here because you want to help yourselves."

"It wasn't one mistake…"

Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Being the Slayer doesn't make me the General," she snapped, "I did the best I could and it wasn't good enough. Well sorry! Leading Potentials into War 101 wasn't in college when I went there."

"No one blamed you."

"Right and Andrew was our best line of defence against the First."

Faith glared at her.

"At least we helped us fight the First! Where the hell were you when we went down into the Hellmouth? Where the hell were you when Amanda and Anya and Spike died? Where the hell were you?"

"Where were you when I personally went up against Caleb and the First to get the damn scythe in the first place?" Buffy snapped, "Oh that's right! You were rejoicing in the fact that you finally got what you want… being me."

Faith laughed.

"Yeah, I'll admit it. I once wanted to be like you. But seeing you now? I think I'll stick to being me, thanks."

"That's fantastic Faith," Buffy shot back sweetly, "You finally got comfortable in your own skin, bravo to you. Now leave me the hell alone."

"You can't walk away from this."

"Why? I didn't want you here in the first place," Buffy snapped, "I'm not you Faith. I'm not in some dark place where I need help to get out. I'm fine, I'm fantastic, I'm happy-Buffy. I'm happy doing my job and I'm happy about my life. So go back to Cleveland and get the hell out of my face."

"Your job?" Faith spat, "In case you haven't noticed, you're working for demons."

"To kill demons," Buffy shrugged, "Can't see what the prob is."

"You're working for the evil side now."

"Not really, since I inevitably end up being hired to kill off my employers so in some twisted way… I end up killing all the bad guys anyway," Buffy informed her, casually.

"You're a Slayer, B!" Faith snapped, "Don't you know what that means?"

"I slay demons?" Buffy's face brightened as she clicked her fingers, "Oh that's right! That's what I'm doing anyway."

"How many innocent people have you killed in your little 'job'?" Faith demanded.

Buffy laughed.

"Sorry, Faith still innocent blood free. Jeez, too bad. We can't compare notes on how to kill innocent people."

Faith looked furious, her dark brown eyes were livid as anger roll off her skin in almost visible waves. She took a menacing step forwards as Buffy smirked at her, daring her to attack.

"Hey!" a voice behind her cried.

Buffy glanced over her shoulder. June glared at her.

"Leave her alone bitch!"

Willow, Dawn and Xander stared at her, their faces equal parts stunned and excited. Ignoring them, Buffy turned back to Faith.

"Seems like the welcoming party is here," she reached to her left and pulled the scythe free from the wall.

She instantly felt the weapon's magic roar through her veins, empowering her with a strength that practically made her skin hum with power.

She smiled into Faith's shocked eyes.

"Guess we can get started."

And with that she leapt at the Slayer.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Dawn almost felt her heart stop as she saw her sister for the first time in two years. Emotions ran through her mind in a chaotic maelstrom: shock, excitement, love and nervousness all vied for attention as she felt Xander and Willow stiffen beside her.

They had seen her too.

"Leave her alone bitch!" June roared suddenly, dark eyes crackling with adrenaline and fearlessness.

Buffy turned around, her hazel-green eyes sweeping over familiar and alien faces alike.

She turned back to Faith.

"Seems like the welcoming party is here," Buffy spat.

She reached to her left and yanked the scythe free from its position of being embedded into the wall. Dawn's eyes widened in shock as she realised what her sister was going to do.

"Faith!" she yelled.

"Guess we can get started," Buffy smirked as she lunged at the other Slayer.

Willow surged forwards, arms flung outwards as she began whispering under her breath, the air around her thrumming with power. Buffy whirled around in mid-air flinging the scythe towards them in one fluid movement, wooden stake end lancing towards them like a spear. Willow was slightly caught off-guard at the surprise move as June's eyes widened in shock as she realised her danger.

"STOP!" Willow cried desperately flinging her magic outwards blindly.

A dome of swirling white light slammed into place around them, the scythe striking the magic before bouncing off helplessly. Willow dissolved the wards as June leapt through the hole at Buffy.  
The blonde Slayer had knocked Faith backwards with a vicious roundhouse punch to the head and was more than ready for June.

June swung at her but Buffy easily dodged the wild blow before hitting June with a triple combo kick. It struck the younger girl in the knees, stomach and face knocking the Slayer reeling backwards as she grabbed the girl's flailing arms hurling her straight at Faith.

Both Slayers went down as Buffy leapt over them, running deeper into the building with amazing speed. The others could only watch on as darkness consumed the lithe Slayer's form.

"What do we do?" Sari demanded as everyone stared after the Slayer in shock, stunned at the ease she had taken on both Faith and June.

It was Kennedy who answered.

"AFTER HER!"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Buffy raced through the darkness, growling in frustration as she heard Kennedy's voice boom through the building.

"AFTER HER!"

"Damn," she muttered patting her jacket pockets, searching, "DAMN!"

She had no weapons left. Her last stake had gone into the gut of some random demon, leaving her with only her fists and feet. Normally she wouldn't have been very worried knowing full well she could beat almost anything up into a bloody pulp but she was up against multiple highly trained Slayers. Buffy had the feeling hand-to-hand combat was not the way to go.

She glanced around hoping to see a window or a door through which she could escape.

No such luck.

Her eyes darted to her left.

No luck either but…

Buffy smiled as she saw the intricate network of metal pipes that was embedded into one crumbling wall. Reaching out, she wrapped her fingers around one thick pipe and gave it a forceful yank.

It buckled but still held firm.

"Damn it," Buffy growled, "Come on."

The sound of boots pounding on hard concrete filled her ears as Buffy gave another pull.

She was rewarded with the screech of twisting metal, the pipe popped free from its mooring as Buffy gave her makeshift an experimental twirl.

"Perfect," the smile disappeared from Buffy's lips as her face hardened at the sound of approaching footsteps.

She glanced up and without a pause leapt into a standing jump that sent her soaring to the ceiling. Her left hand shot out, snagging a rotting crossbeam as she deftly swung herself up onto the wood balancing on the narrow plank delicately as she waited.

They were coming.

"I think she went this way!" June cried as Sari and Rebecca raced after her.

"June! Wait!" Sari yelled after the Slayer, "Slow down!"

June whirled around and glared at the younger girl.

"You guys are too slow!" she barked, "She's going to get away! That damn bitch is probably gone by now!"

"Damn bitch?" a new voice called from somewhere above them, "That's not very nice!"

June's head snapped up in time to see a metal pipe smacked down on her face, she dropped without a sound as Buffy landed gently, twirling her weapon in her hands.

"You guys aren't too slow," Buffy smirked, "I'm right here!"

Sari and Rebecca leapt at her as one, their swords slashing the air in powerful swings.

"CLANG!"

Buffy's pipe shot out deflecting both blades away as Buffy slammed into the girls with her body, bringing her superior strength into play. Sari was knocked aside as Buffy elbowed her in the face.

She fell away with a cry as Rebecca swung at the older Slayer again.

Buffy ducked the swing and lashed out with her pipe, the twisted end sliced into Rebecca's shirt, jagged metal tearing through fabric.

"Missed," Rebecca spat angrily as she slashed at the Slayer again.

Buffy swung the pole up, deflecting the blade and connecting with the girl's jaw. Rebecca's head snapped backwards as the rest of her body followed suit dumping her onto her back.

"Didn't miss," Buffy shot back as she swung the pole down onto the girl.

Metal connected with flesh as pain roared through Rebecca's body, darkness claimed her as Sari staggered to her feet.

"That hurt like a son of a bitch," the Junior Slayer gasped.

Buffy turned to regard her, pipe held at the ready.

"Jeez, Kamikaze Barbie," Sari quipped as she raised her sword.

"Slayer Wannabe."

"Wannabe?" Sari demanded, "I'll show you wannabe!"

Buffy cocked an eyebrow.

"I'll show you wann…" she frowned, "You do realise that doesn't make sense right? I mean… what is that supposed to mean? I'll show y…"

Sari lunged forwards with a wild swing as Buffy back pedalled to afford the blow.

"Hey!" the blonde Slayer snapped, "Rude much? Can we make with the bantering before the fighting? There are rules you know!"

She threw a punch at Sari that connected with vicious force.

"The Slayer always has to make with the witty foreplay before landing the final blow," Buffy continued, hitting Sari again, "Something like… I don't know… 'Heads up!'"

Buffy whirled around, twirling the pipe in her hands before landing the final blow, cracking Sari across the face with the metal weapon. The Junior Slayer hit the ground in a crumpled heat as Buffy looked at her dispassionately.

"Told you to watch out," Buffy smirked, "See? That's how it goes."

"Buffy," a soft voice whispered from behind her.

The blonde Slayer whirled around, her hazel-green eyes unreadable.

"Dawn."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Xander dashed through the darkess, Willow right beside him as she tried to focus again, her magic rippling out around her as she strained to bear her power down onto her target.

"Damn it!" the witch cried in exasperation, "I can't track her down!"

"I thought you could!" Xander yelled at his best friend.

Willow gave a sigh of frustration.

"That anti-locating spell charm thing is like… like…" Willow trailed off, grasping for words, "A slippery fish-oil thing!"

"What?" Xander shot the witch a strange look.

"It's slippery and frustrating and annoying… and really, really hard!" Willow pouted as she continued to run, "I can't find her!"

"At least you stopped her from escaping," Xander reminded her.

Willow nodded, a satisfied smile on her face.

"Oooo… that's right! And hello self-esteem," she smiled at her best friend, "The wards should hold around the building… but this whole trapping Buffy like a rat thing… not sitting well with my conscience."

Xander sighed.

"Buffy's just a little confused right now… don't worry we'll get through to her."

Willow nodded.

"Darn tooting."

And the two continued to race through the shadows.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Dawn, how you've been?" Buffy said casually dropping her pipe.

It fell to the concrete with a loud clang.

"Been keeping out of trouble? Your grades okay?" Buffy continued conversationally as Dawn took another step closer towards her sister, "Met any boys yet? Cos if you have I'd have to make with the threatening and the background checking… right after I force you to join a convent and take a vow of celibacy."

"Buffy, come home," Dawn said softly.

Buffy laughed and shook her head.

"Sorry, I've got a home…" her eyes hardened, "But it's not with you guys."

"I'm sorry."

Buffy cocked her head to the left, studying her sister carefully. Two years had done little to change Dawn's physical appearance… except for the fact that she positively towered over her by now but her eyes told another story.

They were old eyes, eyes that had seen too much… lost too many. Buffy felt sadness twinge her heart at the realisation that little Dawnie had grown up.

Without her.

"I'm sorry too," Buffy sighed, genuine emotion in her voice, "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you… watch you grow up to be a beautiful woman. All those things I promised that day but Dawn… things don't always work out the way we want it to."

"Tell me something I don't know," Dawn muttered, rolling her eyes.

Buffy felt the same flash of annoyance at the sight as she had two years ago. It was nice to know that even after all that had happened to them some things remained the same.

"Don't roll your eyes at me," Buffy muttered, "That's my eye roll. My patented eye roll. You're copyright infringing!"

Dawn snorted.

"Don't see a C with a circle around it anywhere," she retorted.

Buffy laughed as she turned to leave.

"Buffy! Where are you going!" Dawn cried as Buffy began to walk away.

The blonde Slayer turned back to regard her sister.

"Dawn… that night everyone made it very clear they didn't want me around… so here's your wish… goodbye."

"No! But that night! Everyone was just a little emotional…" Dawn trailed off as Buffy whirled around, fury blazing in her eyes.

"Emotional?" she demanded, "How about you Dawn? 'I need you to leave'? What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

"We were fighting a losing war… we needed everyone together…" Dawn tried to explain, hurriedly stumbling over her own words in her panic.

"Together?" Buffy repeated incredulously, "Hmm… 'I need you to leave' and together… that sounds like an oxymoron to me!"

"Buffy, you went to far…"

Buffy shrugged.

"Maybe I did but you guys were willing to chuck me out of my own house just because I went too far?"

"You didn't need to leave!" Dawn protested, "You only had to back down a little?"

"Again with the you saying 'leave'," Buffy shot back, "You know what you said that night so don't try to twist it around so you're the innocent."

Dawn glared at her.

"Stop being so selfish!"

Buffy's eyes widened in shock.

"You left us to fight alone! You left when you should've stayed and fought! You left us when we needed you!"

Buffy laughed.

"You left me to go out into the night alone knowing full well that the First and his little army was hanging around. Where were you then? Where were all of you when I took on Caleb and got the scythe? I helped you. I gave what you needed to fight against the First… that was enough. That was the end for me," Buffy finished coldly, "The Potentials and Faith I could understand not wanting me around… I screwed up! I admit that I let Molly and Annabelle and Eve die! But you? My own sister was against me? There's no way you can defend that."

Dawn took a hurried step backwards as Buffy stomped towards her, anger radiating off her in almost tangible waves. Such was her fury.

"I died for you Dawn. I threw myself into that damn portal and died for you. I raised you, I housed you, I fed you even though I had to take some pathetic, low-life job to do it! Wasn't that enough to get some loyalty?" Buffy spat, "But apparently not Dawnie! That's not enough for you."

"Buffy…" Dawn said quietly, "I'm sorry…"

The Slayer seemed to deflate as the tension dissipated from her body. Rage left her eyes as she turned around again.

"That's not enough… but it's a start."

The blonde Slayer walked away leaving her little sister to stand alone in the dark.

"It's a start," Dawn repeated quietly, dazed from her confrontation.

She smiled as she finally realised the magnitude of what her sister had said.

A very small flame ignited in her heart.

Small and fragile but it was there.

It was hope.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Buffy growled in frustration as she slammed her shoulder against the door once more. Pulsating white energy flashed into life throwing the Slayer away as she landed roughly onto the concrete. With a small groan, she picked herself up glaring at the doorway and the shimmering ward that stretched across it.

"Damn Willow," she muttered knowing full well who had erected these barriers.

She frowned at the obstacle, wondering what she should do. Suddenly a small smile curled her lips.

"Hey Faith… been sneaking there behind me for long?" she asked turning around slowly.

Faith stood there beside her, scythe clutched in her hands, defiance burning in her eyes.

"B," the brunette Slayer said evenly.

"F," Buffy said just as calmly.

"We both know this whole talking thing ain't going to work," Buffy sighed, "And I know you're not going to leave me alone."

"B, your friends need you. Giles needs you. Everyone wants you home," Faith pleaded, trying anyway despite the Slayer's words, "We don't have to do this."

"Well, since your debating skills ain't exactly big with the persuasion I think we do have to do this."

The Slayers began circling each other, sizing their opponents up as Faith began twirling the scythe in her hands.

"We can do this the easy way, B."

"Yeah, but this way is so much more fun."

Faith shrugged and leapt the blonde Slayer swinging the scythe around. Buffy rolled under the swipe and sprang upwards hitting Faith with a double-handed open palm punch. It struck the Slayer in the chest knocking her backwards as Buffy threw herself into a flying kick.

Faith grabbed the blonde Slayer's foot and hurled her against the wall. Bricks crumbled beneath her as Buffy hit the ground, she instantly flipped back up onto her feet as Faith charged at her.

Buffy leapt to the side, the scythe blade hitting the ground, bitting into the concrete as Faith struggled to pull it free.

"What's wrong? Can't pull off a King Arthur?" Buffy smirked, "Well, we can't all be special."

She leapt into a small hop kick that struck Faith in the chest. The Slayer's head snapped backwards as Buffy coldly threw a roundhouse punch that connected with the cheek. Faith spun away as Buffy leapt after her. Faith threw a quick one-two combat strike that struck Buffy in the chest twice before nailing her with a left hook that sent her teetering backwards.

The blonde Slayer steadied herself blocking Faith's next move before snaking her hand through the woman's defences and hitting her neck with a vicious chop. Faith fell away choking for breath as Buffy watched on, fists and feet at the ready.

"Damn B, you've gotten faster," Faith rasped as she straightened; fight still left in her body.

"Nah, you've just gotten slow."

Faith threw two left hooks at her as Buffy ducked to avoid them, a lightning fast uppercut struck her in the face dumping her onto her back as Faith backed away, a satisfied smile on her face.

"Hey, I'm still here. Still fresh," Faith smirked, "And I've got some wicked new skills."

"No, Faith," Buffy staggered to her feet, "I don't swing that way."

"What? Are you homophobic now? Cos that's really strange since your best friend is one," Faith leapt into a spin kick that struck Buffy in the chest, knocking her back.

Buffy stumbled backwards.

"I'm fine with that!" Buffy unleashed a barrage of punches all of which Faith deftly blocked, "But I just not that kind of girl."

"What kind of girl are you?" Faith demanded.

Buffy leapt into a flip, double kicking Faith in the face. The Slayer hit the ground as Buffy landed nimbly.

"A good or bad one depending on the time of month," Buffy was dumped onto her back as Faith lashed out with a leg-sweep.

Both Slayers rolled to their feet as they threw a left hook at each other. Buffy was struck across the face as Faith took a hit in the gut.

"Ow," Faith groaned, "Ouch."

"Yeah, big ouch," Buffy agreed.

They continued to spar as they picked up the conversation again.

"And unfortunately for you it's that time of the month again," Buffy informed her, "So I might get a little grumpy."

Faith scrunched up her nose.

"Didn't need to know that, B," Faith muttered as she struck Buffy with a left hook.

Buffy lashed out with her right foot catching Faith just above her knees, with a cry the dark Slayer stumbled backwards as Buffy leapt forwards with a spinning kick that struck Faith in the chest.

The Slayer flew across the room, her back slamming into a nearby support post as Buffy charged at her.

"CRACK!"

Faith ducked as the blonde Slayer threw a high kick at her. Buffy's foot struck the post just missing Faith as the dark-haired woman grinned.

"Miss me, B."

"Didn't mean to hit you," Buffy said calmly as she stepped back.

Faith stared at her in confusion as Buffy jerked her head upwards.

"Timber," she murmured.

The support post shattered as the crossbeams in the ceiling above began to tremble. Buffy hit Faith again with another kick as the ceiling crumbled. Wood, concrete and plaster rained down on the Slayer as she threw her hands above her head in a feeble attempt to protect herself. Buffy soon lost sight of the Slayer under a hail of wood and debris as she hurriedly backed away from the avalanche of twisted deluge.

The dust settled and Buffy's eyes were greeted with a mound of rubble.

She cocked her head as she studied her handiwork.

"Someone really should close this place down," she muttered, "It's a health hazar…"

"BAM!"

A blast of white light struck Buffy in the chest as she flew backwards hitting the wall with incredible force. The air was driven from her battered lungs as she slid to the floor, blinking furiously trying to clear her vision.

Willow stood before her, towering over her fallen form menacingly. Her green eyes were flashing from black to green slowly like a crazed traffic light.

When she spoke, her voice was a guttural growl.

"What have you done?" she barked.

Buffy studied her face.

"Jeez, Will. Veins again. Maybe you should use Maybelline to fix that up… you're worth it."

"Buffy?"

Buffy glanced at the speaker.

"Xander," she slowly stood up as Willow glared to glare at her, her eyes still flashing from black to green, "Well, I guess we're back together again. Crazy reunion, hey?"

"What have you done?" Willow demanded.

Xander put a calming hand on Willow's shoulders but the witch ignored him as she continued to send death glares at Buffy.

"Faith? We just had a little chat that ended up into an all out free for all," Buffy smiled proudly, "I won."

"Will, calm down," Xander whispered soothingly to his friend, his dark eyes on Buffy.

Willow blinked furiously as her whole body shook, the blackness bleed away from her eyes as Buffy watched on interestedly.

"Cool, from Darth Willow to normal Willow in under sixty seconds," she mused.

She pulled a face.

"Darth Willow? You thought two years would've purged that Andrew influence away from me but…" Buffy sighed, "No dice."

Xander took a small step forwards, his dark eyes studying Buffy's face as he slowly reached forwards.

"Buffy, is it really you?"

"No, I'm Duffy, Buffy's long-lost twin who just happens to walk, talk, look and slay like her," Buffy retorted.

"I've missed you," Xander said softly.

Buffy softened.

"I've missed you too."

Willow's anger disappeared as she moved closer to her long lost friend.

"We've all missed you," she whispered gently, "Especially us… and Giles."

"I know," Buffy gave them a teary smile as she took another step towards them, "You don't know how many times I've dreamed of this movement…"

"You kinda expect violins and a full orchestra to swell up in the background, don't you?" Xander teased with a small smile as he closed the final few inches between them.

Buffy smiled up at him.

"Yeah," Buffy sighed, "I've thought of this moment for so long and now that we're all here…"

Her smile disappeared as her eyes hardened revealing the iron-willed warrior that dwelled beneath her beaming façade.

"I can finally do this," she hissed.

Xander and Willow's eyes widened in shock as Buffy's hand shot outwards with deadly speed. Before anybody could react Buffy had grabbed Xander around his neck pulling her towards him as she trapped him there with her arms.

Willow's eyes instantly flashed to back as she roared with rage. She raised her hand, red energy crackling between her fingertips.

Buffy laughed.

"Make one move and Xander dies."

Willow glared at her as Buffy smirked tightening her crushing grip on Xander.

It was a standoff.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Everyone jumped as a thundering sound roared through the air.

"What the hell?" Rona muttered as the sound died away as suddenly as it had appeared.

"What was that?" Vi demanded.

Nora, Emma and Beth exchanged confused looks as Kennedy began running towards the direction of the sound.

"Come on!" she yelled impatiently, "It's probably Buf… WAH!"

Kennedy was flung aside as dark shape tackled her into the ground.

"What the hell?" Beth instantly dashed over to help but another figure leapt out from the shadows swatting her aside.

"Oh man," Rona groaned as pinpoints of glowing red appeared all around them.

"They're back and they don't look happy," Vi noted as Emma and Nora slowly shifted into fighting stances.

Beth fought her attacker off as Rona and Vi rushed to help her and Kennedy. A pair of strong hands wrenched the demon off Kennedy as the Slayer flipped back onto her feet.

"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands," the Senior Slayer noted as Vi calmly snapped the neck of the demon she had hauled off her friend.

"Yeah, looks like," Vi dropped the body and turned around just in time to see Beth and Rona finish off theirs.

"Is it just me or are there even more than last time…" Emma whispered to Nora.

"Not just you," Nora said calmly as she raised her sword.

"Pair up!" Kennedy barked, "Protect each other's bac…"

Before she could finish her final word, the demons leapt forwards with a blood-chilling roar.

"How did they get in?" Beth demanded as she backhanded a demon, "Isn't the wards still in place?"

"Maybe they got in before!" Kennedy snapped, "Who cares! FIGHT!"

Beth pulled a face as she ripped a demon open with her sword. Flipping over the demon's body, she punched a demon in the face with an uppercut stabbing it in the chest as it hit the ground.

Kennedy was ripping into the demons with her bare fist crushing bones with each punch as she brought her brute strength into play, beating each demon into submission or death. Vi had found herself paired up with the usually timid Emma, usually being the operative word.

Emma was in the process of hacking of a demon's head off its neck as another one tried to sneak up behind her. Before Vi could react, the tiny Slayer whirled around sword flashing through the air.

It bit into demon's face as it fell without a sound, pulling her sword free, the Junior Slayer finished off her first victim with a spinning slash.

Vi shook her head, forcing herself to focus as she stabbed a demon in the chest. It fell backwards as it another leapt forwards to take its place. She threw a left hook at it but it blocked her, trapping her arm with its hands. A vicious head-butt knocked it back as Vi slit its throat open, dark blood spraying into the air.

Nora and Rona threw their demons at one another, their scaled backs slamming together as Nora ran both of them through. Ripping her sword free, the Scottish Slayer lashed out with her right foot, staggering a demon as Rona leapt in with her battleaxe neatly decapitating it.

Beth hit the ground as one of the demons nailed her with a punch but she lashed out with her sword, its razor sharp blade punching through the demon's skull as it died noisily. Grimacing as the demon's body fell onto her, Beth scrambled free before joining the fight.

As the Slayers fought, the demons continued to pour into the battlefield.

It was kind of unfair.

The Slayers had no idea that the demons were being let in.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"I'll kill you," Willow barked.

"When did you become so bitchy?" Buffy wanted to know, "You never were like this before."

"I've never been held hostage before, maybe," Xander suggested squeakily as Buffy continued to crush him to her.

"True," Buffy acknowledged with a nod, "Wait… what about that time with that date of yours… Lisa?"

"She tried to sacrifice me… but nope, no hostage holding."

Buffy shrugged.

"Making sure. Don't want to be a liar."

"I'll going to kill you."

"Got the memo," Buffy shot back, "Look Wills, I've had a long night. So why don't we listen me out and we can all go home?"

"No," Willow snapped.

"Will," Xander pleaded, "Please listen."

Willow narrowed her eyes at Buffy but nodded slowly.

"Destroy the wards and I'll be out of here and Xander gets to stay death-free."

"Yay," Xander muttered dryly, "This is so humiliating. From Zeppo to handyman to yellow-crayon talking guy to Poker chip… behold the evolution process that is Xander Harris."

Buffy and Willow ignored him.

"How can I trust you?" Willow demanded.

"You can't," Buffy told her firmly, "But I really don't want to wash blood out of my clothes. It's a bitch."

"… to annoying stain," Xander continued muttering to himself, "Maybe I'll become a butterfly next."

"So, what's the stich Willow. Deal or no deal?"

"I will find you later and kill you," Willow whispered.

"Oh?" Buffy pretended to be hurt, "What happened to the whole 'we've missed you' routine."

"You're a pathetic," Willow hissed, "You were my friend once. You were a hero once. You were a Slayer once and now you're nothing."

Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"Harsh but sorry, unlike little Miss Buried Alive there," she gestured at the pile of debris, which Faith was under, "I don't have any childhood trauma… in fact say all you want about me… I really don't care."

Willow gritted her teeth.

"Fine," she snapped, her voice as cold as a blizzard, "I'll drop the wards."

"Peachy," Buffy smiled as she began dragging Xander over to the doorway, "Always knew you were the smart one Will."

Willow merely growled at her before extending her arms forwards.

"DROP!" she barked, power rolling through her voice.

White energy shimmered in the doorway before blinking out of existence, cautiously Buffy reached a hand out behind her and felt the air.

Nothing.

"Nice doing business with you," Buffy called cheerfully to the furious witch, "See you around some time soon."

With that she hurled Xander at Willow, the witch was totally unprepared as he slammed into her taking them both down. They fell in a sprawl of limbs as Buffy dashed out through the door into the night, her emotions playing havoc with her mind.

Stumbling blindly through the night as tears began to fall down her face, Buffy headed to the only place she knew.

Home.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

June slowly crawled to her feet.

"Where is she?" she demanded furiously glaring around.

Rebecca was crouched down beside Sari who seemed to be knocked out.

"She's gone…" the Slayer sighed, "Damn, she's good. Took us all out."

"I'm going after her!" June announced fiercely.

"She'll kick your ass again," Rebecca protested.

"Screw that," June raced off as Rebecca sighed.

"Sari?"

"I'll be fine," the young Slayer muttered, her eyes fluttering open, "Hurts like hell but I'll be fine. Make sure June doesn't kill herself."

Rebecca nodded before climbing to her feet and dashing after June. Sari groaned as she tried to roll over.

"Heads up?" the Slayer mused as she slowly crawled to her feet, "What kind of pun is that?"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"This is fun," Beth muttered as she sliced another demon open, "Where the hell are they coming from?"

"I don't know!" Kennedy cried in frustration.

She lashed out with her hands grabbing one demon around the neck. With a cry she threw it up against the wall before punching it in the gut.

"Why are you here?" she roared into its face, "What the hell are you trying to pull?"

The demon looked up at her with dull red eyes, the crimson orbs glazed over in pain.

"We work for her," it rasped in broken English, "We were meant to delay yo…"

It died before it could finish. Kennedy stared down at its broken body.

"Her?"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Xander, you okay?" Willow cried frantically as she shook her friend's still body.

Xander's one good eyes fluttered open.

"Ow," Xander muttered, "That hurt. I can't believe she tried to kidnap me! I fell so used!"

Willow smiled gently before helping him up onto his feet.

"I can't believe I let her go," she sighed in frustration as she glanced at the open hallway, "And I can't believe the dark magic took over so quickly… I thought I was improving."

"You're doing your best and you were stressed," Xander soothed her, "Anyone would turn evil in that situ…"  
"What the hell?"

Both of them turned around. June and Rebecca stood at the doorway gasping at the sight of the collapsed ceiling.

"Wha…" Rebecca began.

Xander's eyes widened.

"Faith!" he ran over to the rubble and began trying to free her.

"Stay back," Willow commanded, "I'll handle this."

"Will, maybe you shouldn't use magi…" Xander began.

He was forced to leap out of the way as energy began crackling around the witch's lithe form.

"I can handle this," Willow muttered grimly as she focused.

Her eyes began flashing again from black to green as the energy around her spiked unsteadily: flaring one moment, mere embers the next.

"Will…" Xander began.

"SILENCE!" she roared.

She whirled around to face her friend and opened her mouth. A stream of shimmering air and crackling green energy struck his chest, flinging him backwards. Xander was sent flying.

He crashed into the wall, landing painfully onto his back as Willow twisted to face the two Slayers. They backed away slowly as she screamed at them.

A blast of energy struck Rebecca throwing her back as June leapt at Willow, intent on fighting the witch.

"Thicken," Willow muttered.

June struck an invisible barrier, bouncing off the magic as she hit the ground painfully. Willow, her eyes now completely black, slowly stalked towards the Slayer, the air around her crackling with power.

"Hello June," Willow whispered, her voice turning into a raspy growl, "I've got a question for you."

June stared up into the witch's veined face.

"What?" she spat.

"Do you want to be strong?"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"KENNEDY!"

"Oof!" the Slayer hit the ground as a demon cannon-balled into her.

Vi and Rona charged at the demon tearing it apart with dagger and axe as Kennedy rolled onto her feet, her eyes venomous with rage.

"WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?" she roared as she charged into the demons, tearing through them like a rabid tiger.

The demons were no match for the Senior Slayer's wrath. They fell away from her as Kennedy lashed out with fists and feet, her fury transforming into bloodlust. The Junior Slayers backed off as Vi and Rona joined Kennedy in finishing off the last of the demons.

"Ken!" Vi barked, "Calm the hell down!"

Kennedy whirled around and glared at her.

"We need to know."

"Know what?" Rona demanded.

"Who sent them here."  
"Huh?"

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"What?" June was confused, "What the hell are you going on about Will…"  
"I'm not Willow," the dark-eyed witch told her, "My name is beyond your pathetic mortal comprehension. I am beyond anything you can possibly conceive of."

"Umm… did you knock your head by any chance?" June asked worriedly as she crawled to her feet.

'Willow' merely smirked.

"I've been watching you," she continued, "I know you."  
"Duh," June muttered.

Willow's eyes flashed with fury as she took a menacing step forwards.

"Do not play with me mortal," she hissed, "I can crush you like an insect between my fingers."

Waves of dark energy rolled off the woman's pale skin as June hurriedly backed off, every hair on her body rising as pure, undulated terror roared through her nerves.

"What do you want?" she whispered, not daring to meet Willow's dark eyes.

"I want you."

"What?"

Willow smirked.

"You are not a Slayer. You are something more. You don't care about the 'cause', you don't care about protecting the innocent… what you care about…" Willow took another step towards June, "Is power and I can give it to you."

"How?"

Willow cocked her head as she opened her mouth, this time when she spoke no actual sound came from her lips but June stared at her as though she could hear what the witch was saying. Willow's silent speech continued as June nodded, slowly at first but becoming faster and more eager as her eyes began flashing.

"I can give you the world," Willow told her, her voice returning back to normal, "Do you want it?"

June smirked.

"I want everything."

"Good," Willow raised her hand and gestured to somewhere behind her.

June watched as the scythe freed itself from the concrete wall and shot across the room to the witch. Willow deftly caught it, her eyes crackling with dark energy as she smirked at June.

"The demons I summoned won't keep the others for long… but it's enough."

"Enough for what?"

"This," Willow gripped the scythe tightly as her head snapped backwards.

A string of guttural screams ripped itself free from her throat as her whole body began convulsing. June watched on in fascination as the scythe began glowing with dark light, Willow suddenly straightened and stared straight into June's eyes.

June stared into those dark irises and saw hell and death and destruction dancing in ecstatic ballet. She saw terror, horror, fear, malice and most of all…

Power.

"COME FORTH!" Willow barked as streams of black light struck June's body.

The Slayer jumped as something warm and hard fell into her hand. The light faded away as June stared down at the thing grasped between her fingers.

It was the scythe but it was no. Instead of a majestic crimson, the colour of blood, it was black. The blackest of blacks, pure ebony like Willow's eyes.

The smooth metal surface was twisted into horrific shapes, forged into screaming demonic faces but the edge was still razor sharp, still extremely deadly. June felt power shoot through her body as she stared down at the dark scythe.

"Use it," Willow whispered, "Now! Embrace your destiny."

June smirked as she savoured the power.

"Yes," she murmured gently to herself, "Yes. Yes. Yes."

She whirled around and stalked over to where Rebecca lay on the ground, the Junior Slayer was slowly coming to.

"June?" she moaned blinking in confusion, "What the hell…"

She caught sight of Willow.

"Whoa! What's with the Wicked Witch look?"

No answer, both June and Willow remained silent, a smirk dancing across the latter's face.

"June?" she looked up at her fellow Slayer and gasped as she saw what the girl had in her hands, "What's that?"

June smirked down at her.

"Power."

"What the hel… ARGH!" Rebecca screamed in pain as June swung the scythe down.

Razor metal sliced through skin and flesh as Rebecca's eyes snapped open, becoming impossibly wide.

"What…" the Slayer gasped clutching the deep cut slashed across her chest, "What the…"

June kicked her in the face knocking her back down onto the ground.

"Congratulations Rebecca," June smirked, smiling coldly down at her, "You're my first."

"How? Why?"

Red splashed against the concrete as Rebecca's eyes became unfocused. Her hands weakened as they fell away from the mortal wound sliced into her body.

It was 'Willow' who spoke.

And it was the last thing Rebecca Swain, Vampire Slayer, ever heard.

"She's a human being," 'Willow' taunted, "Making her choice.

June swung the dark scythe down for the last time. Willow laughed in ecstasy as the scythe began glowing a brilliant green, a similar glow flashed across her skin as June turned around to stare at her, an evil smirk dancing across her face.

The glowing faded away as Willow began laughing.

"That was nifty," she growled.

"Fun for me too," June sniggered, not in the least concerned about the fact she had just murdered a fellow Slayer.

The sound of footsteps reached their ears.

"Hurry," 'Willow' growled, "Remember the plan?"

June nodded briskly as Willow waved her hands at the dark scythe. June jumped as metal dissolved into thick black smoke, the plume of darkness drifted over to Willow like a writhing serpent, twisting this and that way before finally rearing up into the air and plunging itself into her skin as the witch's body writhed.

"AH!" Willow screamed as black and green energy raced across her skin.

The convulsions died away as June glared at her, 'Willow' narrowed her eyes at the Slayer.

"Don't worry," she hissed, "You'll get it back later."

She turned to regard Xander.

"Forget," she hissed waving her hands at him.

Black energy washed over the man as 'Willow' turned back to June.

"He will not remember what happened. He will think that the blonde Slayer knocked him out," 'Willow' sniggered, "Remember the plan. The others must not know of me yet. It is too early, failure and success goes hand in hand right now walking along a narrow line. The slightest mishap could result in disaster."

"Lie," June snapped, "Got ya."

'Willow' narrowed her eyes at her before closing her eyes, when she opened them again the blackness was gone replaced with emerald green. With a small sigh, she fell to the ground.

"REBECCA?" Beth cried as she ran into the room, "OH GOD! What happened?"  
June stared at her, her eyes wide as tears leaked down her face.

"She did it… she… I tried to… but she… Faith… Xander… Willow…" she closed her eyes, "Oh god… Rebecca…"

She collapsed to the ground sobbing in pain.

"Who's she?" Kennedy demanded.

"The blonde one…" June stared up at them, "Buffy."

"That bitch," Kennedy growled, "I'm going to friggin kill her!"

The Slayers gathered around Rebecca's body as Beth and Emma began crying. Kennedy, Vi and Rona looked furious as Nora looked on, her face an unreadable mask. The sound of sobs filled the air as June looked away.

An evil smirked unfurled across her face.

"Idiots."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Buffy slowly opened the door to the safehouse, her body and mind exhausted beyond even her endurance.

It was Ryan who greeted her.

"What's up?" Buffy said lightly, trying to pretend that she was perfectly fine.

Ryan grinned at her.

"We've got a job."

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

CLIFFHANGER! What is going on? Willow evil? You'll just have to see (smirks)! Thank you to all the people who reviewed! I really, really appreciate it! And I like to thank everyone who reviewed and said they love my original characters! This means a lot to me, this is probably one of the few non-crossover fics (BTVS/Angel doesn't count) that I've written!


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